The Original Dopple Ganger
by DayNap
Summary: Klaus is trapped in Tyler's body and refuses to get out. Therefore they have to force him out in the only way they can. They're resurrecting Tatia Petrova.
1. Chapter 1

_Its mystic falls. Nothing bad ever happens here…_

Damon woke with a start at the echo of the words Elena had spoken to him the first time they had ever met. He'd tucked every detail of that encounter into the very back of his memory the entire time they'd known each other. It was too painfully ironic and too wrenchingly heartbreaking to think about regularly. However, ever since Elena's death it was all he could do to keep the memory from popping up. This time around it had been in a dream form. Other times it would be a certain thing a person would say, simple actions that would remind him of her, or something as silly as thinking about her.

Groggily, he looked over at his alarm clock. The red letters glowed out of the darkness at him. 1:34am. Knowing full well that he wasn't going to be getting anymore sleep tonight he dragged his heavy limbs out of bed. He knew where he should be right now. It was where his brother was, but something just wouldn't let him stay there after storming into the hospital and finding out from Meredith the grim and undeniable truth. Elena was a vampire. Damon fled, unable to come to terms with that. Vampires were evil, dark, murderous, manipulative, selfish creatures; the exact opposite of everything Elena was. He couldn't picture it.

Stefan had been calling him frequently to give him a daily update on Elena's condition. Sometimes it was two or three times a day, depending on what had happened. Apparently, Elena initially was going to ride out the transition and let herself fall into the cold blackness of death. That phone call had sent Damon over the edge, he'd almost killed himself three different times upon hearing this, however after fighting the urge to go on a killing spree, downing an entire fridge of blood, and then drowning his sorrows in two consecutive bottles of bourbon he'd received a second phone call from his brother. He and Elena had gone to go give the news and say goodbye to Jeremy. The moment she'd seen Jeremy's face she must've changed her mind because she told Jeremy that she was a vampire. She couldn't handle the idea of allowing him to lose yet another person that he loved. They went back to the house and a bag of stolen donated blood must've gotten the job done because as far as he was told she was still breathing.

Right now however, he couldn't get the damn girl out of his head. The beautifully innocent and lost girl he'd bumped into that one late summer's night, before she'd lost her parents, met Stefan, became the dopple ganger, and turned into a vampire. Therefore, he threw his typical black v-neck shirt, well-fitting jeans, and leather jacket on and walked to the spot in the road he'd been laying when he'd first seen her. She was on her cell phone talking to her mother. He remembered thinking that the woman on the other line had a very soothing voice. He laid himself out on the concrete once again, staring up at the sky, trying to think. He'd always done this, ever since the paved road was invented. He didn't know why but it was comforting.

She'd remember the night they actually met—not to mention the first time he's confessed his love to her- now that she was a vampire. That was in all honesty the main reason he'd been avoiding her, he wasn't ready to have that conversation with her. Why did he make her forget? How could he take away her memories like that? Did he _really_ think that this new knowledge would change _anything_? Even thinking about what she would say to him caused the familiar burning behind his eyes. Yep, definitely not ready yet.

"Damon?" The light girly voice inquired behind him. He rolled his eyes and dragged his hand over his face in exasperation. Out of all the people that could have turned up at the road where he and Elena met, it would be her. "Damon, what are you doing?"

"Nothing that you should know or care anything about, Blondie." Damon retorted, keeping his gaze pointed straight up at the stars above him. If only he could go back to that night and refrain from erasing her memory. She would have met him first, he would have loved her first.

He would be her first choice.

Caroline recognized the distraught look of despair on Damon's hansom face and made the sudden, unwarranted decision to join him on the road. She could very well hear the sigh of irritation that emanated from his lungs but she ignored it. He was only acting like this because he wanted no one to be close to him, so that he could then use it as an excuse for his self-hatred. She knew what that was like. She knew that deep down he didn't want to be alone, but his humanity was showing and he hated when it did. "You know, you were a real tool bag when we were together."

"Gee thanks."

"But, I understand why you did it." These strange words caused Damon to whip his face around to look at her, surprise spreading over him. "You wanted to make Stefan angry and there I was…_throwing_ myself at you. The way that you treated me is nearly unforgivable and even though you and I pretend that we never happened, we did and I wish I could say that it was epic."

"But we both know that's a lie." Damon replied smirking up at the sky, remembering the time he wasted on Caroline Forbes. If he hadn't acted like that, Elena wouldn't have had a reason to hate him so passionately at first. Sure, once she found out how he turned her birth mother there would've been sparks flying but, perhaps she wouldn't have found out in the blunt way that she had.

"God…it seems like ages ago now, but it's only been a year and a half. So much has changed since then." Damon observed with reserved curiosity as she stared up at the sky with so much hidden emotion blocked behind her pretty eyes. "I want to forgive you for all of it, Damon."

"You really have grown a lot as a person in that year and a half. It's hard to believe you're even the same person." He revealed how impressed he'd been all year long, as he watched her from the sidelines of Caroline's life. "Maybe in another life I would've been attracted to you again."

A hint of a smile played at her lips as she turned her head and looked over at the fellow vampire lying next to her. "Same goes for me."

"Not to ruin the dramatic mood of this exchange but, what are you doing here?" He finally asked, propping himself on his elbow so that he was facing Caroline completely.

"I couldn't sleep," She admitted to having the same problem as Damon had been having. As he watched her he noticed tears welling up in her eyes. Panic washed over him now, he wasn't prepared to have to comfort anyone. "Tyler's been acting really strange ever since Klaus died. I'm still trying to figure out why he isn't dead…not that I'm complaining."

"Who knows…" Damon said rolling onto his back once more and continuing to stare up at the sky. "Did you ask Bonnie?"

"I tried to; she's been MIA ever since the whole Elena's a vampire thing. I got her voicemail." Damon nodded at Caroline's response, trying to piece together Tyler's strange survival himself. Caroline's right, the boy should be dead only he _was_ complaining. He never did really like the Lockwood boy. "Why haven't you been around, Damon? Now is when she needs you the most and you take off. We've all been guessing which city you fled to; none of us guessed that you were in Mystic Falls."

"Stefan knows that I'm still here, did he tell Elena?"

"No, if he did Elena would force him to let her find you."

"That's true." He laughed bitterly, sitting up finally. "I'll help you find Bonnie, she seems to know the answer to every supernatural thing in the entire universe." He got up and brushed the dirt off of his clothes, looking down at the blonde vampire who was looking back up at him. "I'll see yah soon, yeah Blondie?"

"Go talk to Elena, Damon. Believe it or not she really misses you."

"It's only been a week." He said as his parting words before racing away, to leave the baby vampire to sit in his place to go over her own inner turmoil.

**What do you guys think? It's short but, it's only a tester to see if this is an okay story so far. It's going to be Damon/Elena & Caroline/Klaus/Tatia. Leave a review to tell me if it's worth continuing.**


	2. Chapter 2

He watched from his place within the woods as Caroline gazed up at the night sky all alone. He'd been hunting when he'd just happened to stumble upon her. Klaus wasn't quite sure what was holding him back, he was disguised as Tyler and therefore she would enjoy his company. He was not in his body; she would not use it against him in capturing her heart. Yet something held him in his place, only watching with yearning to be nearer to her.

She _was_ quite beautiful; the way that her pale blonde hair glowed in the moonlight entranced him. Underneath all of that beauty stood a tortured soul, lost within a black cloth of darkness that was near consuming her. Always on the brink of breaking, with no one there to catch the pieces for her. Except for Tyler. He was Tyler now; he needed to be the one now to hold her together. It was a job he'd been begging for and now that he'd been handed it by means of selfish fear he was hesitant in action. He made the sudden decision to pull his act together and try to think like a lug headed jock.

"Caroline, what are you doing out in the middle of the road?" He asked revealing himself as he walked out from his hiding spot within the trees. She sat upright and looked up at him with surprise clear upon her face. "It is freezing out here and you're not wearing a jacket. You're going to get sick." He teased, knowing full well that she was not cold and would not get sick due to both of their supernatural status. She smiled up at him, pleased to find him in a more normal spirit than before. "Let's get you home, yeah?" She nodded and let him help her up and walk with her through the town and down to her home. All the while they spoke of little else than the events of the last week. There was little else to discuss.

"Out of all of this, the thing I am the most happy about is Klaus' death." Caroline stated at the walked past the Mystic Grill, toward her house. Klaus tensed up at the mention of his expendably fake death and deceiving residence in Tyler's body. He kept his eyes to the ground and nodded, trying to mask the hurt that hid inside his breast. "I know you hated him, I suppose I did too at one point…"

"At one point?" He questioned, head snapping up to stare into her astute face.

"He had to die, I know that but…I don't know…I feel like he wasn't as bad as everyone believed. He was just…misunderstood." She admitted her hidden feelings to her boyfriend, praying that it wouldn't start another fight. This was one of the touchiest topics to him; he despised talking about Klaus in any other light than a negative one. However, perhaps now that he was out of their hair for good he'd be more civil on the topic.

"M-misunderstood?" He stammered, unable to believe her compassion riddled in her speech about him. He thought of nothing but he speaking like this of him to other people, never in his wildest dreams would he have believed that it actually happened. He had to egg her on to disclose more information, if he did not he was sure to burst. "Go on, please dear Caroline."

There is was again. His odd behavior that had her going in circles. _Dear Caroline_? What the hell was that? She decided to ignore it, when else would she ever be able to talk the Klaus thing over with him where he wouldn't punch a wall in frustration that she held him in a positive light.

"His father was too terrible mean to him Tyler. Always holding him in contempt due to the fact that he was a bastard." She began, trying her best to choose her words carefully to not set him off. "It breeded a need to be loved by all and the only way he saw fit were to make people love him. It just wasn't the right way to go about it. Compelling people to his whim, needless meaningless compliments, buying them things…" Her voice welled up suddenly, breathless at the thought of how he used to use methods as such in an attempt to win her fancy; all in vain unfortunately. "It was all wrong, if he just opened up to people and acted as a civil version of himself than people would like him. If only he'd seen that sooner."

"Would that have won you over?" He asked as they reached the corner of Caroline's street. He grabbed her elbow to stop her, forcing her to pause and tell him where they stood. She gasped at his inquiry and seemed to searching his eyes for the nerve-racking jealousy a question like that typically caused. All she found was the fiery passion that he only had when they were making love. Never had it appeared so strongly while holding a mere conversation, let alone that it was about the one man on earth he despised more than his father. "Be honest, I won't get mad."

"Perhaps." She whispered taken aback by his reaction to her tirade about Klaus.

Klaus couldn't stand the distance between the two of them any longer, it was driving him mad. A desire to reach out and grab her all over ripped at him with a ferociousness that he hadn't felt in a thousand years. Without restrain he crashed his lips onto hers, the hope that he could yet persuade her to love him inspired the passion resonating within him. Caroline was entirely taken off guard by the kiss and with no avail kissed back, impressed with the emotion he was exhibiting. Tyler had never been one to show his feelings so well but tonight he seemed to be an open book.

It was strange, how the man he hated and Tyler seemed a lot more alike now that he was dead. He was never so passionate or romantic until the past week. It was almost as if Klaus hadn't actually died at all, but took Tyler's body as his own. The sudden thought of the possibility caused Caroline to jump back, tearing away from the thrilling, goose bump inducing kiss.

"Klaus?" She wondered aloud, gazing into his eyes.

"What? No…" "Tyler" muttered, reaching to kiss her again but Caroline held her hand out to hold him back, unable to shake the premonition that she was correct. "Caroline, what's the matter with you? I'm trying to be a good boyfriend. Whether I liked it or not, you had some odd relationship with Klaus. Don't you want me to be more considerate?"

"I-uh…of course!" She replied taking a deep breath and turning to beginning to walk again. Tyler was by her side immediately, never missing a step. "I'm sorry, it's just this week has been hard for me. Yet another person that I love has been turned and then there's the mystery to why you're still alive. Don't get me wrong Tyler, I love you and I'm happy that you are but, you should be dead right now!"

"I know…I don't get it either. Why don't we go find Bonnie and maybe she can explain it for us."

"Damon's already on it." She moaned rubbing her tired eyes. When her vision was properly focused again she noticed that Tyler looked distressed. "What's the matter?"

"Damon…he's the one who's going to talk to Bonnie?" He said slightly hysterically as the two of them turned into Caroline's driveway and making their way to her door.

"Yeah…I know you don't like him very much Tyler, but he _is_ on our side after all."

"Yes, yes I know he is…of course, you're right." He mused lost in the depths of his mind, subconsciously laughing at the irony of that statement. The fact of the matter was that Damon and he were playing on two completely different fields, let alone teams. The games were actually quite paralleled, deception to steal the girl they loved away from another. So maybe in some twisted form they were on the same side. "I should probably get home, my mother has been quite miserable ever since the founder's council kicked her out. Strangely enough, they haven't come for me yet…"

"Me either, I don't know why though. When did everything get so complicated?"

"Beats me." He shrugged with a friendly smile, dropping a soft kiss onto Caroline's sweet raspberry lips. "Goodnight."

"Night." She smiled drawing him in for one last tender kiss.

She went inside, being sure to gift Tyler one last smile before letting her front door closed. She pulled the drapes to the side, peering out the window to watch her boyfriend's frame shrink as he walked down her drive and up the road. She waited until she could not see him all, nor hear his footfalls over the pale sidewalk. Then she dug into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out her cellphone. She quickly dialed in a number, her fingers shaking profusely while doing so.

"What is it Blondie? I just saw you not twenty minutes ago, what could have possibly happened since then?" Damon's voice slurred with sarcasm that made her want to slap his head clean off of his shoulders.

"I think I've figured out why Tyler's still alive, Damon." She took the silence on the other end of the line as permission to continue. "I think Klaus is inside of Tyler's body…"

"Meaning that he's not dead." He breathed with exasperation, pinching the bridge of his nose trying to process this information. "How though?"

"That's the worst part Damon…" Caroline cried, even now trying to deny it as the most evident truth. "I think Bonnie did it."

**So, I've made a few altered decisions since my last update. 1****st ****: the chapters are most likely gunna be on the short side, but that means quicker updates. 2****nd**** : The pairing is gunna be just Klaus/Tatia with very little Klaus/Caroline in the beginning. 3****rd**** : I think I'm gunna continue this story. I like it a lot. REVIEW 'til your heart's content!**


	3. Chapter 3

_You could just go without her…_ His mind echoed as he stepped up to the door to his own home. _It's not too late to turn back around and go alone._ Then the thought occurred to him that:

Caroline was coming with him already and he didn't want to have to handle that alone.

Bonnie hated his undead guts and therefore the more people she liked present, the better.

With an unenthusiastic sigh he opened the door and step through the entry way. The odor hit him immediately. It was the thick, rich, overwhelming scent of human blood. He could already feel the veins under his eyes pop and bulge under his pale skin, triggering his fangs automatically. He panned his gaze across the foyer; that visitors typically entered though, passed into the parlor, and up onto the staircase that led to the second story of his home. The place looked as if a full-sized locomotive had plowed full speed ahead across the house. Furniture was ripped open, decorative pieces were shattered, broken glass coated one space of the room, and empty blood bags were scattered across every inch of the floor. What had happened in the course of a single week?

"Damon?" He heard the familiar voice that he had been relentlessly hearing day and night for a week straight. The sweet tone to it had been even more angelic than he had remembered it. He closed his eyes tight for a second, preparing himself for what he was about to turn to face. He rotated to face her, trying to act casually. "It is you!"

"Hey Elena." He greeted warmly, as if he'd never left. She raced forward at vampire speed and smacked him straight across the face. The impact of the blow was so strong that his head wheeled to the left nearly snapping his neck, which would have knocked him out for quite a while. He could feel the singing red hand print that his knew was tattooed on his right cheek from her slap. "Ow! Glad to see you're alive too! Damn!" He began to rub his pink cheek while glaring back at the Bulgarian beauty that stood fuming in front of him. Her nostrils were flared and her brown eyes were flaring in anger.

"How could you!" She screamed, her voice trembling in emotion. Damon softened at the sight of tears searing in the corners of her red eye whites. Suddenly he had no idea what to say to her, no anger left to enforce; all he saw was the girl standing before him with tears streaming down her face. "You just _took off_ after you find out what I am? Or did you think I died? Either way you should have been there to find out! Is this about me choosing Stefan? I don't want to lose you! Sometimes you make me want to wring your neck!" Her mood swings were so dramatic and so passionate that he had no clue if she was trying to apologize for her choice or murder him for his.

"I'm s-" He started to apologize but before he could finish Elena was suddenly wrapped around him in a tight embrace. Without a single thought he clamped her to his chest, not refusing a chance to hold her close to him after a week apart.

"You promised me …" She whimpered in a weak voice against his chest, the hot tears soaking into his shirt. "Y-you-you said that you were never going to leave me again…" It was like the tissue at the back of his throat had turned into sandpaper, his mouth dry and sticky. He _had_ made that promise to her and he had intended to keep that promise at the time. What had he done?

"Why are you here Damon?" Stefan's voice came out of nowhere, his presence becoming known as he leaned up against the frame of the door. Damon stepped back from Elena, staring at Stefan with a pitiful gaze. Stefan looked the same; Elena looked the same. How could they have created this zoo? That was something Damon typically did to piss Stefan off. It was evident by the look of contempt on his little brother's face that he hadn't anticipated his return to the boarding house so soon. "I'm assuming that this visit _isn't_ about Elena."

"Not originally but what in hell have you two been up to? Playing Jumanji without me?"

Elena smiled to herself; though she wouldn't say it out loud, she'd missed his sense of humor. The way he'd seem to connect situations so well to movies, pieces of literature, and historic events. "Things have been rough…" She spoke up, not allowing the two to brawl over her account again.

"I can see that." He smirked looking over the house again. "How many different blood banks did you rob?"

"Every single one from here to Atlanta, we only took a few from each, I promise." She assured him, trying to lighten the mood, and draw the conversation away from her vexation in adjusting to being a vampire. "I'm getting better."

"Is she?" Damon directed his question away from Elena and towards Stefan, trusting his judgment over the temperamental newly turned vampire next to him. He nodded, a small smile appearing on his face. Damon nodded back at him, glancing once at Elena; the pain was still raw as ever that she'd chosen Stefan. Everyone chose Stefan over him. _It's always going to be Stefan._

"Damon?" Her voice dragged him out of his reverie, barricading him from allowing himself to place the blame and anger on Stefan instead of the woman he loved. He looked down at her flawless face, trying to figure out how he could have let such a beauty slip through his fingers for a second time. "If you didn't come here to check in on me, than why _are_ you here?"

"Tyler. He's still alive."

"Yeah, we know. Caroline came by and told us a few days ago. She said something's off about him though." Stefan stepped into the room, as if he'd realized for the first time that the room was a disaster and he began to pick up the empty blood bags. "It's odd isn't it?"

"What if it isn't odd so much as…_magical_." At this both stopped what they were doing to give him their full attention. "Caroline thinks that Klaus isn't dead."

"That's impossible! Alaric staked him! You saw it yourself!" Elena argued, gesturing to him in a very sure manner. He pursed his lips and nodded in return to her statement.

It was true that he'd witnessed his death with Rebecca fighting against his restraining arms. He knew that if he let go and let her try to save her brother she'd have met the same fate. The memory flashed through his mind, particularly the look of crippling agony on the blonde original's face as the demonic version of Alaric plunged the ancient wooden dagger into Klaus's already frozen chest. Yes, Elena was right. He had seen it himself and couldn't forget.

"What if I told you that he'd gotten help from a certain witchy-poo of ours to transfer into Tyler's body so that when he was staked, it was already just an empty corpse?"

"No way! Bonnie _hates_ vampires, Klaus particularly! She would never do that!" Elena defended her best friend, refusing to believe this.

"Have you _talked_ to Tyler lately?" Damon retorted, crossing his arms over his chest and shooting Elena that skeptical look that she despised.

"I have and I have to agree that he's been off. Something's amiss..." Stefan interjected, receiving an icy glare from the only female in the room. She was in denial that Bonnie could turn on them like that, not only a few months ago she was willing to trade her life to terminate his existence in return. Now they were implying that she had saved his life? "Are you going to see Bonnie?"

"Was on my way there with Blondie, figured I'd stop by and invite you to join me."

"Elena needs a sun ring made for her anyways. The sun comes up in a little over an hour, we should probably go now." Stefan accepted the offer, gesturing for Elena to go get the ring she wanted Bonnie to enchant for her. Once Elena was out of the room, a heavy silence plagued the room, as the two brothers looked at one another. Sure Damon was bitter over losing Elena but, somehow he'd still come out of the ruckus loving his brother in the end. "When she woke up, the first thing she asked was if you were still alive."

"Really?" Damon shrugged, pretending that the knowledge hadn't had any effect on him.

"Yeah, she said that there's something she's been meaning to talk to you about. If only you'd show up so she could talk to you about them. She won't tell me what it is she wants to discuss but, I know that she took the necklace, I got her, off when I was away and now she has a few displaced memories. Am I correct?"

"Get down from your soap box St. Stefan. I never compelled Elena when you were away on your bender with the half werewolf, half psychopath hybrid." Damon teased, holding his hands up in a surrendering manner.

It was true; he hadn't compelled her a single time while she was without the necklace. Both of the times he had had been before Klaus had even became anything more than a mythical character. The first time had been before she'd ever even met Stefan and the other had been after she'd run off on a suicide mission. Both of the times he had compelled her were innocent, he'd never tried to control her or her emotions the way he had so simply done to Caroline.

"Let's go guys." Elena said as she appeared in the doorway, her eyes lingering over Damon's face. She'd been eavesdropping on their conversation. She knew what they were talking about and it brought the new memories, that she'd just recently been re-gifted after death wiped away Damon's compulsion, to the very front of her mind. "We can talk about that some other time."

With that said, the three of them took off in the direction of the Bennett household.

**I know, I know I'm driving you guys all nuts! Tatia is coming soon I PROMISE! I'm going to try to update once a day. Thank you guys for reading and reviewing, I really appreciate it and I'm glad to see the positive feedback. See you all tomorrow! **


	4. Chapter 4

"Will you please tell him to stop calling me a trader? It's really getting on my nerves." Bonnie complained as she walked across the room to one of her bookshelves.

She'd moved into her Gram's old place after her mother was turned. She just didn't belong living with her normal father, ignorant to this side of her. She felt weird moving into her mother's house after everything that happened and it was all because she just _had_ to seek her out and get her involved in this business. Her gram's old place was the only place where she felt comfortable. When the entire gang showed up at her doorstep at quarter to three in the morning, she knew that they'd figured out what she'd done.

"So you admit that you did it?" Stefan asked not so much in an accusing tone as it was that he was confounded by the lack of effort it took to get her to admit it.

"I had good reason behind it." She sighed, slamming the book down on the table in her dining room.

"AHA! I told you!" Damon cheered pointing at her like she was the member of a side show. Caroline glared at Damon's obnoxiousness before placing her eyes back onto her best friend who just admitted to being an ally to someone everyone else in their immediate group of friends hated. Spare Caroline. Someone else must've seen the misunderstood potential for greatness in the hybrid.

"I have good reason to believe that Klaus was the originator of your vampire bloodline." Bonnie revealed. "Before you even ask, Elijah and Rebekah both say that it was not either of them, nor was it Kol. That leaves only Klaus. They needed me to save their brother. Tyler would have died, right along with every last one of you if Klaus kicked the bucket." She looked smugly at Damon's expression of disappointment and resentful gratitude for what she'd done for all of them. "Sorry to shatter your fantasy that I'd gone to the dark side Damon."

This news didn't only disappoint Damon, but Caroline had truly hoped that someone other than herself had finally seen the good in Klaus.

"Shut up." He muttered, crossing his arms in a pout. "What's the book for?"

"I'm guessing you all want to get Klaus out of Tyler's body, correct?"

"YEAH!" Caroline cried jumping up from her seat.

"Well, unless you want to wait until I can find a way to get Klaus's body back which I don't know how long that could take, there is another option…" Bonnie's gaze landed on Elena's face. It was odd; she didn't look or seem any different than she had a little over a week ago. It was almost as if she was still the human dopple ganger. The final in the blood line. "But it's risky and a bit more complex than waiting it out."

"I'll try anything, please! I just want my boyfriend back." The blonde vampire sighed, rounding around the table to look over the witch's shoulder as she searched through the spell book for the desired spell.

"It'll take a lot of power…it'll take battling with the spirits, I'll have to make a deal with them to make this work."

"What are you going to do?" Elena asked, trying to figure it out on her own, all in vain unfortunately.

Before the young witch could respond there was the sound of a loud banging, as if someone were struggling to carry a flailing animal of some sort through the house. Everyone in the house ceased conversation and watched with astonishment as Elijah and Rebekah emerged from the back door carrying some struggling creature tied up in ropes. It was odd to see the siblings standing before them after all that had happened in the past week. They'd gone from enemies, to friends, to enemies once more. There was an air about them that their relation was about to shift yet again.

"Ah, right on time." Bonnie said as the thing wrapped in the ropes was placed on the floor.

"What are you doing here?" Stefan addressed Elijah with a refined politeness that set Damon and him apart. Stefan looked Elijah up and down, analyzing if they were friends or what. He'd always held a sort of respect for him after he'd helped try to save Elena the first time, even if he had switched side's last minute. If it was his brother, he probably would have done the same.

"You aren't the only ones that want my brother back in his own body." Elijah answered, as usual keeping his answers short and sweet. "We were doing a favor for our young witch here."

"It's Katherine…" Elena gasped, realizing that the thing tied up in the ropes was the psychopathic bitch that they'd all had to deal with far too much in the past year. "What is she doing here?"

"I see you've decided to join the ranks of the vampire, Elena." The weak wiggling figure on the ground spat bitterly at the new born vampire. "It's about time you've come to your senses that it was the only way to end this." Elena suddenly could smell vervain waving through the air. She quickly pinpointed it to be coming from the ropes tied around Katherine. Even to Katherine, who'd been building a tolerance to the herb, this abundant an amount as was absorbed in the rope was too much for her to resist.

"Where does she come into this?" Damon asked looking helplessly at the ghost of his old life. Whenever he got near her all he could feel was the hollow existence that once was his life. All he did was plot and plan for centuries, trying to bring her back, wasting his life. Yet, he stilled cared for her.

"Guys…" Bonnie said taking a deep breath. "We're resurrecting Tatia Petrova."

The reaction was rippled. It hit Stefan and Damon first, their ears perking in recognition of the name. They looked directly at one another in disbelief. Elena and Caroline looked confused, they could easily figure out that she was the dopple ganger before Katherine, based on her last name but, how would that get Klaus' body back quicker? Elijah looked proud, excited even, that the girl he'd once loved was coming back. Rebekah looked oddly pleased too, as if she was also excited for the resurrection of the original dopple ganger.

"Why would she help _us_? She wasn't in love with _him_?"

"Because she was killed because of him." Elijah announced with a knowledgeable glint to his eyes. There was a back story behind that statement and Damon would be damned if he didn't find out what exactly what had happened.

"Okay that's all fine and dandy and all but that still doesn't explain Kat's presence." Elena reminded them all, feeling uncomfortable with the way the mirror image of herself was observing her with such a repugnant gaze.

"I need the blood of all the previous dopple gangers. Luckily, both are still alive. Unfortunately, the only way to get Katherine here was by brute force."

"It's all vampire blood now, it won't work." Kat retorted, but in all honesty underneath it all she was slightly interested in what the witch was going to do to get the blood to work. She'd never reveal that to them however.

"For this spell it doesn't matter." Bonnie replied, ignoring her bad attitude. Her fingers suddenly froze, hovering over a page she'd made it to. There the spell stood in front of her and the more she stared at it, the more nervous she got. She hadn't lied when she'd said that she'd need both Elena and Kat's blood however, she didn't quite specify the other conditions that needed to be upheld. She knew that Elena herself wouldn't have an issue with what would need to be done. She was more worried about Damon's reaction. "Could everyone leave…I need to be able to concentrate fully on this spell in order to do it right and you all are going to distract me."

Without very much protest the house was soon cleared out, leaving herself, Elena, and the tied up Katherine on the floor.

"To start, we need to fill this goblet. Half with your blood half with Katherine's, using this enchanted knife. So long as the blade is touching your skin, the cut won't heal over right away. Once the blade loses contact the entire cut will heal over entirely." Bonnie instructed, handing Elena the small golden goblet that was on her table.

As they handed off the cup, their fingers brushed, and they both flickered their gazes to meet each other's. There was a grim, sad, happiness contained in their exchange and Bonnie nodded to her in reassurance as she let go. Elena held one arm out, using the other to hold the goblet underneath where Bonnie was going to cut her.

The knife in Bonnie's hand had a purple stone blade with a worn leather handle, feathers from a gray bird dangling from the end. She placed the blade just on the surface of Elena's soft skin, not placing yet enough pressure to break tissue yet. One more glance at Elena's determined face and she pressed down slightly. She could hear her best friend suck in a seething breath and then blood was tricking down her arm and into the goblet. The blade of the knife seemed to be pulsating, refusing to allow her skin to heal itself over. As Elena's focus pulled away from the uncomfortable pain the knife was creating, she noticed that Bonnie was muttering some sort of incantation.

Elena had tried not to look but, her eyes wavered down to the goblet under her arm. It looked almost half-full to her, she looked up at Bonnie and saw that she was just pulling the purple blade out of her arm. She let out a sigh of relief as she could feel her arm healing over.

"Now, I have to discuss something with you Elena. But I can't stress it enough that you can't tell _anybody_." Bonnie said over her shoulder as she made a small incision on the side of Kat's neck, allowing the blood to flow more fluently than Elena's had.

"You know that you can trust me Bonnie. What's up?"

Bonnie looked down at Katherine's annoyed face, guilt pushing at her caring heart before she could even stop it. She heaved a deep sigh and looked back up at Elena's face.

**Alright, I know I promised Tatia to you guys and I didn't deliver. BUT to make it up to you, I'm going to post another chapter TODAY and it WILL have Tatia in it, cross my heart! Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing; I check them every day and I'm never disappointed! Review even though I'm pissing you off :PPP**


	5. Chapter 5

When Elena walked into the boarding house that morning, sun ring on her finger, she knew she had to say goodbye to the boarding house. She'd stayed there long enough and she wanted to give her real home a try for a while, see if she could handle being unmonitored with Jeremy around. Also, Tatia needed a place to stay now that she'd been resurrected.

It was the oddest thing in the world to watch the mirror image of herself being generated. Bonnie set the blood aflame, all the while screaming out a spell in that strange language of hers. The burning blood rose up into the air and began making the formation of a woman, same height and shape as Elena. When the spell ended, the flames went out and in its place was Tatia Petrova. Bonnie had blood streaming out of her nose, eyes, and ears but she was smiling. It had worked.

"Damon…Stefan?" Elena called into the house, the first thing she noticed was that they had cleaned the entire place spotless, as if had been before she went off the deep end for the first couple days of her new life. It was almost like old times and it welled her up with the deep sadness. She wanted things to go back to the way they were. The second thing she'd realized was that she probably should have called Stefan's name first, instead of Damon's.

"Hey Elena." Damon greeted, walking through the doorway nonchalantly reading a book. "Stefan's not here, he's out talking with Bonnie and Clyde."

"That's…Rebekah and…"

"…Elijah, yes." He chuckled closing the book and looking over Elena's shoulder at her twin poking her head around the foyer with astonished wonder written all over her face. "Is…is that…?"

"Tatia! Come here!" Elena shouted over her shoulder at the other dopple ganger in the house. She perked up at the sound of her name and walked gracefully through the doorway and into the main room. She looked around the room with amazed curiosity, until her eyes landed on Damon's figure. Her eyes widened slightly at his agreeable appearance and she turned to looked over at her dopple ganger, still bewildered by the girl who looked her exact duplicate. "Tatia, let me introduce to you Damon Salvatore. Damon, this is Tatia Petrova. Katherine's great grandmother."

Damon held his hand out to shake but Tatia gripped just the very top of his fingers and bowed her head and dropped into a low curtsey. Elena covered her mouth to keep from laughing but the action made Damon smile. A woman hadn't curtsied at him in a hundred years and the action made him smile because it reminded him of his human life. He looked her over, already picking out differences between Elena and Tatia so that he could tell them apart.

The first thing he noticed was that Tatia moved with such a grace that woman weren't taught anymore, it was almost as if she glided when she walked. The next thing he saw was that her hair was a good five inches longer than Elena's, it looked grown out, not cut into any type of style, with a nothing done to it, leaving nothing but the natural wave to her hair. The final thing that he picked up was that Tatia seemed quiet and kept her thoughts to herself, as most woman of her day were expected to act.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sire." She muttered in a formal yet still sweet and enchanting version of Elena's voice.

Damon decided that he liked her.

"As it is you Ms. Petrova." Damon returned, allowing her to rise up from her curtsey. "As much as I like her like this, we're going to have to teach her to act like she's from the twenty-first century."

"I'll get right on that." Elena interjected, slightly jealous of the way Damon was gazing at Tatia with dazzled and sparkling eyes. He was only so enchanted because he hadn't seen a woman act like she did in such a long time and it was refreshing to say in the least. There was no real attraction to her, other than the fact that she looked exactly like Elena. "I actually came by to tell you guys that I'm moving back in with Jeremy at my house, and Tatia is going to be staying with me in Jenna's old room."

"Are you sure you can handle that Elena? Tatia isn't a vampire; if you go nuts and attack she can't stop you. All she'll do is add to the temptation."

"I can do this Damon," She stepped around Tatia to be closer to him. She reached out and gripped his arm tightly. "Trust me." He nodded in return, letting Elena do as she'd wished for once.

Tatia stood watching them with a pleased smirk on her face. The two obviously were in love with each other; something she'd always enjoyed seeing. Love was a precious gift in her eyes; you don't stumble across it every day. She couldn't help it, but the image of Nicklaus suddenly popped into her head. She'd fallen for both Elijah and then Klaus but in all truth when it came down to the end she'd have chosen Nicklaus over Elijah.

She courted Elijah first because he had been so sweet to her, even though she was looked down upon as a harlot. She fell in love with him almost immediately. He was there for her after her mother took her child away from her and threw her out onto the streets. It was like he brought her out of the darkness and brought her back to life. Then she met the _bad brother_, Nicklaus. At first she hated him. He did nothing but cause problems for his family. But by the last couple days she'd fallen in a love with Nicklaus that seemed to consume her. She could remember the day that had changed her view on him entirely as if was yesterday.

_Elijah's mother was placing supper on the table, rabbit with bread, and stew. Tatia hadn't eaten like this in God only knew how long. Two months ago she was going from hut to hut begging for food. Most turned her away, few gave her the scraps of their dinner. She owed so much to the Mikaelson family for everything they had done for her in the past couple months. They gave her a home, food, and people who loved her. How she would ever repay them for all they had done for her was a mystery. _

"_Where is Nicklaus? He is late for dinner." Rebekah chimed as she brought a bowl filled with corn to the table. The natives had shown their mother the plants that were good to eat and apparently this yellow stuff was delectable. Tatia had never had it before tonight because this was the first fall harvest she'd spent with the Mikaelsons._

"_I believe he is still outside, by the big oak tree. That's where he's been all day." Esther murmured, taking her place next to Mikael at the table._

"_Allow me go get him." Tatia offered, rising from her seat and bowing out of the room politely._

_She strolled through town, noticing that no one was glaring at her as they normally had. It seemed to her that the other townspeople must have finally gotten over the fact that she'd birthed a child pre-martially. She probably would never marry, no one wanted to marry a used woman such as she was. She hung her head in shame at the thought that she and Elijah would probably never get to become husband and wife._

"_I can hear you approaching, what do you want?" Nicklaus' voice carried from the other side of the tree to where Tatia stood. Something wasn't right with him; he seemed in the depths of despair. Whatever could he be so depressed for? Nicklaus and his family had everything anyone could ever dream of. Respect, Power, and Family. What could he possibly be missing?_

_Tatia said not a word in return to him as she stepped over to where he sat and took a seat on her knees next to him. His face looked red and flushed his eyes puffy and bloodshot. Had he been crying? The powerful, arrogant, conceited Nicklaus had been crying? She looked at him inquisitively, trying to understand what had him in such sorrow._

"_Can you leave me be, please?" He snapped, turning away from his brother's object of affection with malice. He'd never been fond of Tatia only because he found himself attracted to her in ways he could not yet explain to himself. It killed him to know that he would never be hers, always her brothers. The hidden fancy had created a large wall that separated the two of them, never allowing him to let her in. Somehow she could sense that and so she stuck her nose up a little higher into the air and addressed him firmly._

"_Don't you try and snub me Nicklaus Mikaelson!" She stated defiantly, only to receive a look of warning from the boy next to her. She took a deep breath, deciding to take a different approach. "What is the matter, Nicklaus? You can tell me."_

_He looked over at her calm and composed face, marveling at its beauty. He had never had the pleasure of observing her this closely before and now that he had, no other woman in the village could compare to her in beauty. If only she'd not have a child already. She was spoilt and there was nothing her could do for her. Virgin or not, he felt a vibe come off of her that made him feel at ease, as if he could tell her anything and it would not make her feel any different about him._

"_I've always wondered why it was that I did not have either of my parent's blue eyes…" Klaus began looking down at the grass instead of the beauty next to him. "Mine are a mossy green color…"_

"_You're sitting out here alone contemplating eye color? Nicklaus, really I-"_

"_Allow me to finish, woman!" He snapped, irritated that she'd interrupted him so quickly. She was silent now. "So today while I was carrying a heavy sack of flour home from the baker's shop, I ask my mother why she thought that was. We happened to be passing by this tree and so she stopped us and told me to take a seat. Sh-she told me that…" He trailed off, planting his face into his palms unable to finish. He'd never said it aloud before and doing so seemed to make it official. Real._

"_She told you what?"_

"_She explained to me that I am not my father's son." He whimpered staring off into the distance, but not really seeing anything._

_Tatia couldn't believe her ears. Nicklaus did not belong to Mikael? That made no sense! "Well…who IS your father then?"_

"_One of the wolf savages from the caves off yonder."_

"_Would…would that make you?"_

"_I don't know Tatia! I thought so at first but, wouldn't I have changed with the full moon if I had?" Nicklaus had jumped up and was pacing back and forth in front of Tatia, trying to process this information fully. It was a lot to take on all at once. All his life, his mother had been lying to him, his siblings, and his father._

_But had his father not know, really? He was always so hard on him and it would make sense why, now knowing the truth that he wasn't his son._

"_If you want, I can tell you a secret of my own. It might make you feel better." Tatia offered, her big brown eyes shining up at the truly misunderstood and brooding man before her. He stopped moving and looked down at her, as most people did, and nodded. "I am no whore, Nicklaus. I was walking home one night from my old friend Jane's hut, when I came across a man lying in the street moaning. I-I thought he was hurt and needed assistance and raced over to him. He raped me, Nicklaus. He wore a hood all the while and so I could not identify him."_

"_What?" He gasped quickly joining her back on the ground. How would anyone DARE to harm such a lovely girl as Tatia? The thought of it made his teeth set on edge._

"_I suppose it was my fault for walking in the dark without a suitor…"_

"_Why have you not told people that story? It would redeem your name somewhat!"_

"_I tried, no one believed me. They all thought I made it up so that I would not have to take responsibility for what I had done."_

"_You are incredible strong Tatia Petrova." Nicklaus whispered gazing at her face in the moonlight. _

_It was wrong for them to be sitting there, admiring one another while Elijah was her suitor. Both were sinners that night for both had begun to covet what was not theirs for the very first time._

"It was a pleasure to meet you Tatia. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other!" Damon said with a charming smile and a formal bow. Elena looked at him funny, remembering that she had not come from a time with manners like theirs. Tatia smiled kindly back and him and nodded politely.

"Let us take departure, Elena. You can show me my room." Tatia said turning with Elena to leave.

"Someone has got to give you a crash course in the Twenty-First century!" Elena cried with an amused laugh.

"What is a _crash course_?" Tatia wondered as the door shut behind her and Elena.

**DON'T HATE ME! I'm sorry everybody! I now I promised this chapter to you last night and it was never posted but, my friend came over and surprised me with a night out. Which kept me away from the computer! I hope you enjoy the chapter and MY adaptation of what I think Tatia Petrova would be like Reviews would be LOVELY! **


	6. Chapter 6

_The moon showered down over the land, in a strange blue light. Tatia had never seen the moon so bright. It entranced her as she strolled through the woods just off of the village. One night a week she'd venture out into these woods to meet with Nicklaus to talk. They had to leave at different times so that no one would become suspicious, especially not Elijah. He would tear his heart in two if he only knew the truth. She brushed the familiar bramble bush aside and stepped out into their small clearing. It was a simple small ten by twelve kilometer space, just enough where they could sit and chat with one another._

_He was already there, sitting at her feet, looking up at her expectantly._

"_Nicklaus…" She greeted with a sweet smile, his eyes glowed with adoration that she could all but just return equally. She kneeled down next to him, folding her skirts expertly under her bosom. Her earthy brown iris' gleamed up at the green expanse of Nicklaus', not a word was spoken for a while. They just sat there staring at one another wordlessly observing one another. "You weren't followed?"_

"_I don't believe so, Henrick continuously badgered me about where I was off to but I believe he's at home sleeping." He replied taking Tatia's hand into his lovingly, rubbing his thumb over her soft knuckles tenderly. Their eyes flickered together once again._

_They'd been meeting like this for months, without suspicion. They spoke of their love for one another, but never had they acted upon these feelings. Translation: They had yet to share a kiss. The moment seemed so right. They were alone, they felt so comfortable around one another and yet a single touch on either's skin sent currents of tingling sensation everywhere. Tatia felt as though someone else was controlling her actions as her face gravitated forward, toward his. Her eyes instinctually fluttered shut, leaving her up to the whim of the blonde beauty inches from her face._

_She'd just felt the slight brushing of his smooth skin overtop hers. His lips had the slightest taste of salty sweat from all of the labor he had put in chopping wood and training in combat. Her lips tasted of the sweet sugar that she'd pour into the cakes that she'd assist his mother in baking. Klaus hesitantly placed his strong calloused hands on her cheek and shoulder, her heart taking sudden flight as if she were a butterfly._

_That's when they heard it. It was a wailing like she'd never heard before!_

_They jumped away from one another in fright, leaping to their feet and looking around for any signs of another being in the forest with them. The wailing continued._

'_Nicklaus?" Tatia whimpered afraid, clasping his bicep for comfort._

"_HELP ME!" The unforgettable cry of Henrick echoed through the forest at them._

_They made eye contact for a second, fearing the worst, as Nicklaus pulled back the bramble bush slowly and quietly as possible. Tatia shrieked at what they revealed, a pack of four or five of the biggest wolves either of them had ever seen were literally eating Henrick alive. One had his severed arm in its mouth, another a leg, and a few were battling over his lower body. Blood was smeared across the disheveled leaves of the forest floor._

_A few of the wolves' heads snapped up in their direction at the noise generated from Tatia. Nicklaus was sure his heart had stopped beating all together as he became more and more aware of the fact that Tatia's nails were dug into his arm._

"_Run Tatia! RUN!" He screamed at her, ripping her off of him and tossing her in the direction of town. She stared at him in a daze, trying to process what was happening. "GO!"_

"_What about you?" She cried, tears streaming down her face._

"_Don't worry about me! Run, hide, and don't dare speak a word to a soul! Do you understand me?" _

_She nodded, trying to memorize every feature on his face in case he didn't come home._

"_I love you." She whispered before bolting away in the opposite direction of the man she loved._

_As she stumbled and tripped over rocks and roots and scratched at by the stray branches, she thought about what she was going to tell Nicklaus tonight. Elijah had proposed. She hadn't accepted and he didn't understand why. She told him about Nicklaus and it practically tore the heart from his chest. He may never know the good news now though. He may die tonight and it'll be all her fault for luring him into the wood on a full moon. What was the matter with her? How could she have been so foolish! Now his younger brother was dead and it was all on her shoulders!_

_She reached the town, the dust clouding up around her as she sprinted through town, looking for a place to hide. She couldn't bring herself to even consider the Mikaelson residence because there was no way she could face them now, by tomorrow they were all going to be out for her blood! She found the small area between one of the village farmer's barns and tool sheds and nuzzled herself there. She collapsed into the dirt, her entire body trembling, her face paler than that of a ghost, and her crying so violet no noise was being emitted and very little air was let in and out of her lungs between her breaths._

_This had to be the scariest, most rock bottom moment of her entire life._

Tatia sprang up from bed, sucking in as much air as she possibly could. Her eyes darted frantically about the room, presenting crème walls, those odd paintings on the wall that looked so near accurate that it almost as if the person had frozen the moment in time perfectly, and a vanity with basic tools such as brushes, and other things she knew not how to use but would learn.

It was only a nightmare. Scratch that, it was a vivid flashback.

"Tatia!" She heard her own voice call in a worried tone. Elena stepped through the open door, looking concerned about her current state. Tatia quickly pulled herself together, forcing the tears back, and evening her breathing. "Is everything alright?"

"Of course…I just…bad dream…" She replied walking over to the bed and running the odd looking brush through her hair. "Can you teach me about modern society today? I need to be able to fit in with you people and I'm obviously a few centuries behind you all."

"Yeah, no problem." Elena said leaning up against the doorframe, watching her. Tatia was as transparent as a window. She could read the fear in her eyes and rapidly beating heart. What had she dreamed of? If only they hadn't already begun her vervain regimen, she would have been able to read her thoughts. "Tatia…do you know why you're here?"

"To assist in forcing Nicklaus out of Tyler's body." She replied simply, recollecting what the negro witch had told her. It amazed her, the amount of respect the world held for Bonnie's kind now-a-days. The last time she'd been on earth they were meant to be serving people like her, now they acted as if they were equals. It would have to be something to address Elena about when they began their lessons.

"Well…he's coming over today…"

The brush in Tatia's hand fell to the floor, creating a thumping sound. She blankly stared at herself in the mirror for a minute, trying to come to terms with those words. Was she ready to face Nicklaus after all that happened? She was expected to be against him, why was she nervous then?

"Oh?"

"Will you be alright?"

"Yeah…" She gasped, brushing her fingers over her lips playing the tingly feeling her got inside when Nicklaus had kissed her approximately a thousand years ago. The memory was as clear as if it had happened only yesterday.

She knew her mission however. Nicklaus had to be put into his place. He had to be stopped.

That was her job now.

"Teach me now, I want to be ready when he gets here."

**Short I know, but I figured this would make up for not posting twice yesterday. Learning more and more about Tatia's past. Learning her story with Klaus and Elijah first so that you'll understand why she feels as though she needs to stop Klaus. Hope you liked it **


	7. Chapter 7

_Breathe Tatia, Breathe._ She told herself as she took each pivotal down toward the steps. How was she going to play this? Was she just going to out Nicklaus right away or was she to play along that she believed him to be Tyler. They never really gave a her any sort of instruction on what she was to actually do once she made her reunion with her past lover. She knew the goal, but what was the plan? The strategy? There had to be a plan made out in Bonnie's mind; one that involved her particularly, otherwise she wouldn't have wasted her power and defied the spirits like that.

What was it though?

"_He won't know you're here. Caroline is going to suggest that they come visit me now that I'm home from staying with Stefan and Damon. He's not going to have a clue that you're what is going to be waiting for him here. You're just going to walk in and I'll introduce you. He has no idea you've even been resurrected yet."_

Elena's last words to her echoed in her mind as she left her room to go answer the door for Caroline and Nicklaus. This was also her first time meeting Caroline as well, which was pretty nerve wracking in itself. Tatia was dazzled by the pictures Elena had shown her of Caroline Forbes. She was blonde, boisterous, and beautiful; a combination that had always intimidated Tatia.

As she moved through down the staircase, her conscience was very little focused on her position until she realized just how close she was getting to the room. When she'd completely pulled herself out of her mind babble she noticed that she was standing in the doorway of Elena's living room and all eyes were on her. Elena had made Tatia wear her clothes a pair of denim trousers, a thin layer of a cloth shirt, and a leather jacket. The fashion in this new world was odd and the under clothes were uncomfortable. She felt as though she looked improper and ridiculous even though both of the other girls were clothed similarly.

"Sorry…I just…I-um, heard some commotion down here from upstairs and I just wanted to see what it was…" She lied, chills rolling down her spine as she peeked at Nicklaus out of the corner of her eye. She realized that the longer she looked, the more disappointed she was. Though this Tyler boy _was_ indeed a handsome young lad in his own way however, she quickly concluded that her Nicklaus was far his superior in appearance. "I didn't realize you were entertaining…my apologies."

"Caroline, _Tyler,_ let me introduce you to Tatia Petrova, the _original_ dopple ganger." Elena said, fighting the smirk off her lips. How could she help with though with the look displayed on Tyler's face?

He looked as though someone had just punched him in the gut, only his complexion was pasty white. His eyes bugged out of his head and they remained in their trained positioned on the girl's face. His heart had already begun to accelerate the longer he looked at her and could have sworn that she'd seen right through his act, could see right into the depths of his soul, and was entirely ready to run directly into his arms with tears of joy, but she did not.

She remained in her place. Once she realized she was shooting him one of her analyzing gazes that she'd been infamous for, she turned and focused her attention more on Caroline. She smiled at her with a pleasing smile and complimented her. Some sort of comment about her hair or something. He couldn't really tell to be honest, most of the world had just fallen out all around him. He knew not what to do for he found himself in an over-whelming burning fire in his gut. He yearned to reach out and caress that soft olive skin, and just talk as they had when he was still human. No one had ever wanted to listen to his fears, sorrows, regrets, opinions, stories, hopes, dreams, or ideas. No one but the woman standing before him, who did not appear to have a clue who he truly was. To her he was a total stranger.

How was it even possible that she was standing before him? She was supposed to be dead; of course, so had Elena after the moon stone ritual.

"Pleasure to finally meet you! Elena wouldn't stop talking about you _all night_ when we were on the phone last night!" Caroline giggled, trying to play the friendly host even at another person's house. Tatia continued to smile that small feeble smile that made Klaus feel dizzy.

_She's nervous. It's always been hard on her nerves to meet new people._

"You knew she was going to be here?" His voice sounded not only pissed off, but also betrayed.

"I knew there was a possibility of it, yes."

"And you didn't feel the need to let me in on this piece of information?"

"I didn't feel like it'd be important to you…"

"Bonnie resurrected the flipping _original dopple ganger_ from the dead, and you didn't think that it's be important to me?"

"I don't get what you're deal is Tyler! Jeez!" She exclaimed jumping up from her spot on the couch and storming out of the room. Tatia made a note in her head to ask Elena what the meaning of the word _jeez_ meant.

"I should probably go make sure she's okay…" Elena said with finality as she trailed after the bubbly blonde. That left Tyler and Tatia alone.

Which actually meant that Klaus and Tatia were alone.

"What are you doing here, you're supposed to be dead." Tyler growled in a hostile voice that she remembered all too well.

_You're not pushing me away as you did everyone else. It didn't work on me a thousand years ago and It certainly won't work now._

"It's a pleasure to meet you too." Tatia cracked sarcastically folding her arms over her chest and narrowing her eyes at him.

"It takes a lot of power to resurrect a person from the dead; I didn't even know it was possible until now. There has to be a reason for it."

"I know we come from different time periods Tyler, but from the one I come from, you are behaving in an incredibly rude manner."

The two of them sat glaring at one another, not speaking a word. It was incredible to believe that either of them were there. Klaus as another person and just Tatia's presence at all was an inconceivable miracle.

All the foggy haze images of their past together seemed like yesterday and yet still so long ago. It was as if they were close enough to touch but when they put their hands out they realize it had been nothing but the trick of the eyes and they were actually a whole world apart.

"I'm not sorry." He muttered with a defiant glare.

Her eyes widened in shock that he'd just said that to her. What had the years done to the misunderstood, brooding, yet still magnificently beautiful person she'd known? She used to look at his personality and see an array of colors, shades and vivid richness that she had not known existed. Now when she looked at him she saw a black and white portrait of a power-crazy, bitter, and emotionally deprived soul.

All she needed to do now was find those shades of gray in between.

**Bum-bum-BUMMMM! There it was guys! The moment you've been waiting for they've been reunited in the modern world. Wait until you guys figure out what I've got in store for you! let the fun begin…OH and please Review!**


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning came far too soon for Tatia; she was in a dead sleep and nightmare free. She didn't want to have to wake to the reality of what Klaus had become. Now the dreams where a welcome escape from the truth. She'd rather remain in her little memoirs than face the fact that they were all so far in his past that he probably couldn't even remember them any longer. It wasn't fair. She felt as if she'd just woken up from falling asleep and two nights ago she was running from the werewolves with Nicklaus. To Klaus it was a piece of his distant past. Something he probably tried to forget on a regular basis. For all she knew he had.

She moaned in self-annoyance as she buried her face in her pillow and kicked the comforter with her foot. She decided to stay in here as long as her new friends would allow her.

Downstairs Damon could hear the sound of Tatia stirring in her bed, even without searching to his vampire ears could pick up that small of a noise from the second floor. He sat at Elena's breakfast bar, watching her cook breakfast as if she were still human and needed to eat. He found it incredibly adorable that she wanted to continue to live as she would had this not happened to her. No matter how cute she was being though, he could sense that he was there for a reason.

Elena had _invited_ him over for breakfast, _without Stefan_.

She wanted to talk about the new memories. Even though he didn't want to talk about it, he knew that he couldn't hide from this conversation forever.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" He inquired, picking a piece of bacon of the frying pan and popping it into his mouth. The grease drizzled over his tongue and sparked his taste buds. Bacon had always been one of Damon's favorite foods, even when he was serving in the confederate army. He loved the salty grease and the way bacon of good quality seemed to almost melt in his mouth. Elena looked over at him with a questioning look on his face. He could tell she was asking him, _how'd you know? _"Elena, you sounded like you meant business on the phone this morning when you woke me up at _four-thirty_ to ask me over."

She blushed slightly, turning the stove off to bring both their plates of food to the counter and join Damon. She had been nervous to bring this topic up with him because she knew that he never meant for her to find out about these two instances of compulsion she'd been unaware of until recently. He'd been avoiding her ever since she woken up because of it and she was tired of it. It was time to put everything out into the open air and move on with their lives.

"You know what I want to talk to you about, don't you?" She asked breaking the yoke on her egg and dipping her toast in it. Damon smiled to himself and nodded, mimicking Elena's actions. "I understand why you made me forget our first meeting. You didn't know me then, you needed to keep you presence in Mystic Falls a secret, you had your secret agenda at the time to arouse the already living Katherine from the tomb she was not actually in…"

"Okay, yeah thanks for reminding me…" He joked with a friendly chuck and nudge of her shoulder.

"Why'd you make me forget the second time? Why'd you make me forget that you loved me?" All the laughter had left both their faces as she brought up the deed he'd done at the origin of this whole dopple ganger ordeal.

"Well…" He started clearing his throat and shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "You weren't mine to say that to, you were still madly in love with Stefan. He hadn't gone over the deep end. He hadn't left. He hadn't become the ripper. He hadn't broke your heart. At that time I didn't feel like I was entailed to say that to you."

She nodded her head, staring down at her food deep in thought. "Why does it make any difference though, Elena? At the time that I said it, you didn't have any fondness towards me beyond friendship at the time!"

"Well…" She said taking another bite of her food, looking anywhere than at Damon's expectant face.

"Wait…you _didn't_ have any fondness towards me beyond friendship at the time, _right Elena_?"

"I…must admit that there was an attraction to you…"

"Well _duh_, have you seen me?" Damon declared with a cocky chagrin, that made Elena shove him off his seat and onto the floor. "In all seriousness though," He added as he picked himself up from the floor and put himself back into his seat. "Don't worry about it Elena, I know it doesn't change how you feel or alter your choice or anything. I didn't expect it to."

"Of course…" She uttered, looking down at her food oddly disappointed. The conversation went exactly as she'd hoped it would. Damon understood, there had been no pleading, no anger, and no fit of passion where he'd force her to kiss him and she'd pretend not to luxuriate in it. He just accepted it. That's what she'd wanted, wasn't it? As he dismissed the topic from their conversation and begun talking of Tatia's lessons in the modern world, Elena rested her face on her palm in exasperation.

Elena realized that what she wanted was for Damon to fight for her.

Across town Tyler (aka Klaus) was sitting in his own home, staring into the fire. He could not get a wink of sleep last night after what he'd experienced. So much emotional turmoil had occurred it was just ridiculous. What he'd wanted more than anything once he saw Tatia was just to be back in his own body so that he wouldn't have to keep up this charade.

"What's with the long face brother? Everything appears to be going in you favor. They all believe that you're dead and you are the Lockwood boy. All is well, is it not?" Rebekah crooned walking through the doorway, observing the look of sheer sadness displayed on his face.

He turned to glare at her briefly before returning to the fire. It wasn't even worth it.

"I just burned my last picture of Caroline."

"I thought you'd done that a while ago…"

"No, I did most of them but I'd kept a few of my favorites. Plus, I'd drawn a few more since then. But they're all gone now."

"Why?" She smirked to herself, already aware of the fact that the one girl in the history of the world that had ever captured her brother's heart entirely just stepped back into his life. Or thrown in really.

"Can you keep a secret Bekah?"

"Duh. What is it Klaus?"

"Tatia has been resurrected, by that sassy witch Bonnie, and I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure she's trying to kill me."

She couldn't help it, but she scoffed at his response. "I think you've had too much to drink. You sound paranoid."

"Am I?"

"I think so, maybe you should focus more on mending that broken off relationship and less on worrying about the jock-headed hybrid's body."

He sighed to himself as his sister strolled out of the room just as quickly as she'd come in.

Was she right? Had he become so used to people always working against him that now he was seeing enemies in his friends?

**Review guys )))**


	9. Chapter 9

"No Tatia, it's a bad idea." Stefan persisted, standing in her way and blocking the door. Tatia huffed in exasperation and rolled her eyes in irritation. How could Elena have possibly chosen this control-freak over Damon?

In Stefan's defense she was incredibly biased. She'd spent a lot of time with Damon, having conversations about human progress since she'd died. He told her all about his human life in the mid-eighteen hundreds and how he came to be turned into a vampire. What had amazed Tatia the most about the story was the lack of sour attitude Damon held against Stefan. He assured her that it took him nearly his entire existence as a vampire to finally forgive him. He was complex, just like Klaus, which she found herself enjoying immensely. He had become her best friend.

Stefan always seemed to view her as nothing more than a tool in destroying Klaus and she certainly resented that. Everyone seemed to love Stefan, and love him more than Damon which she found completely outlandish. For once, she was going to let Damon see what it would be like to have someone hold him in their favor over his brother.

"She's a teenage girl that hasn't even seen what the modern world has to offer. She'd not a prisoner, you can't keep her cooped up in Elena's house forever." Damon interjected as he turned the corner to find Stefan in Tatia's way. "How are we going to know if she's learning anything if we don't test her?"

"It's dangerous."

"I don't care. It's my life, Stefan." She pleaded, staring up into his blue-green eyes.

Stefan stared back in awe. Elena had said that to him on multiple occasions and he'd let her do what she wanted. He was acting like Damon did whenever he thought Elena was doing something she shouldn't. He always hated it when his brother acted like that and now he was becoming just like him. He took a deep breath and nodded his head, against his better judgment. He stepped aside and watched with despairing eyes as she stepped out into the sunlight.

"She's going to get lost." He added as she turned onto the sidewalk, looking around at everything in awe.

"I gave her a cellphone and taught her how to use it."

"Do you enjoy it?"

"Enjoy what, Stefan?" He turned and looked at Stefan with an intense blue-eyed stare.

"Having your little pet running around, allowing you to reminisce about the _old days_."

"Well, well, well isn't this _cute_. Stefan's jealous that the original dopple ganger likes me better. Who would have thought it?"

"You're wrong, Damon."

"Am I?" He asked walking around Stefan and going out the door himself. His hand closed around the handle and as he closed it he shot at his brother, "If my lap dog gets back before me, let her know I'll be at the grill shooting pool and picking out her dog collar."

Stefan sighed in exasperation, running his hands through his blonde hair. He couldn't help it, he couldn't shake this looming premonition that something horrible was going to happen to Tatia if they let her out on her own like that.

Tatia was astounded by the advances they had made in infrastructure in the thousand years she'd been dead for. This place was phenomenal to look at to someone like her, whose idea of a home was a one room hut with hay bedding as a mattress. All she'd learned in the past two or three days seemed so surreal to her. Magical devices that can capture a single moment in time, like a painting only quicker and more precise. Not only that, but _moving_ pictures. It had scared her the first time she'd been shown it and Jeremy, Elena's brother, laughed at her as he tried to teach her to play video games with him.

She wasn't sure if she'd ever get used to this new technology. The most daunting thing about it all to her was that everyone here took everything for granted from running water, to their portable communication devices.

"Hey, do you wanna go get a drink with me?" She heard Damon's familiar voice slur in a mischievous tone. She smirked to herself as she looked over her shoulder at him following only a few steps behind her pace. "Stefan's worried you're gunna get lost like a puppy and then get hit by a car, taken in my animal control, or something." Tatia wrinkled her face up in confusion at the comparison he'd made between her and a dog. He chuckled to himself and shrugged it off, assuring her that she wouldn't understand the joke. "I can show you what a modern day Tavern looks like, if you want."

Her eyes lit up at the mention of the tavern. She used to go there with Nicklaus on the days when things had been especially strenuous on him. She would sit there and listen to him as he would suckle down a pint or two. Then it was her job to pull him away while he was just barely drunk and kept him from drinking his sense away and then walk him home and put him to bed. Elijah would sometimes come along too and just barely sip at his drink, always muttering how scandalous it was that a lady was attending such a barbaric place on a regular basis. He always seemed to forget that most of the village already thought dirt of her.

"Let's go!" She cheered, waiting for Damon to catch up with her. "Stefan doesn't know you're with me though, does he?"

"Haha, what can I say Tatia. I love messing with him."

"He's so uptight, it's like he's gripping at you constantly. Is he always like this?" She inquired as they walked side by side, watching each car as it wizzed by them with the same astonished curiosity she possessed every time she saw the new inventions that the typical person had been accustomed to since birth. "I mean, I understand that he has that _self-tortured, I'm-a-monster-no-one-come-near-me, mysterious _thing going on that- according to the teenage magazines Elena has had me read- makes girls fall all over the place. But he needs to let loose and chill out a little bit."

"He's just been under a lot of stress. If you'd been through what he has, you'd be up tight and annoying too." Damon defended his brother in a very philosophical tone of voice. Tatia gazed in awe at him, he really did adore his brother—no matter how he tries to wile him up and watch him explode. Damon loved his brother more than any other person on this planet. This she could see plainly. "And not into broody mysterious guys, huh?" His arched eyebrow expressed his level of sarcasm. Klaus had been both of those things and she had somehow fallen for him. The thought of anyone _choosing_ to spend time with the pain in the arse hybrid seemed far-fetched to him and the fact that she'd been so willing proved to him that truly was someone out there for everyone.

"Shut up!" She laughed, pushing him slightly askew from their path. He laughed at her reaction, the rosy pink cheeks peeking up through the typically composed and sly face she wore.

They reached the grill after sometime of walking and talking some more about both of their lives. Damon learned that Tatia knew very little about the formation of the vampires, due to the fact that she was killed as part of their creation. Tatia learned that he and Elena were the most complicated lovers in history. She thought he situation was confusing! At least she had figured out which she'd loved more, instead of the swaying back and forth that Elena had been doing for months now. She didn't judge her as most would because she knew what it was like to be judged based on what was seen from the outside.

As they walked into the grill, Tatia automatically decided that she'd be spending a lot of time at the grill. The modern edge to the decor, dim lighting, and laid back feeling the place gave her when she walked in. This would be the perfect place to unwind after a particularly stressful day. She eyed the bar longingly, already starting to march toward it to order a pint of their best draft. She made it barely halfway there when she felt Damon's protective hand around her upper arm. She looked up at him in confusion, what was the matter? Damon never stood in her way; that was just their relationship. She did what she wanted and he did what he wanted. Never did they get in each other's way.

"You're eighteen years old, Tatia. It's against the law for you to drink." He explained quickly, trying to lay it on her lightly. He'd already embarrassed her once, there was no reason to publicly humiliate her too. She rumpled her brow at him in confusion, why would they outlaw drinking? "They passed a law that says you have to be twenty-one."

"You're lying!" She gasped, unable to believe such a silly thing. He shook his head, trying his hardest not to crack a smile at her. She was so ignorant that it verged on adorable. "Why, of all the outlandish things you've told me!"

"Go take a seat at one of the tables. I'm going to get myself a bourbon." Damon instructed, gesturing to the tables spread out across the pub.

"Sure, rub it in!" She joked, sticking her tongue out at him and hesitantly venturing out into the expanse of tables. Some were taken by adults, some teenagers. For some odd reason, they all appeared to know her because some waved, some said "Hey," some smiled, and some she just saw the recognition in their eyes. They must've thought she was Elena.

Tatia inwardly shrugged and decided to play the part, might as well have fun with it. She waved and asked people how they were, trying her hardest to not burst out in hysterical laughter as each person believed her to be Elena. She finally took a seat at the table Damon pointed at and scanned the area once more. A handsome blonde young man was making his way toward the table with an apron around his waist and a notepad in hand.

"Hey Elena, we were short-staffed and so my boss if making me wait tables. Don't tease too hard." He said absentmindedly. Tatia didn't respond as she continued to study him with analytical prowess.

He certainly wasn't a horrible looking fellow, now was he? The way he just walked right up and addressed her with good humor and a charming smile made her want to smile right back at him. However, as she looked into his cool blue pools she saw a hidden sorrow. Something bad had happened to him that left him internally broken.

"Matt?" Damon asked coming over and taking a seat next to mine. His bourbon looked so good to me right about now. "What are you doing waiting?"

"Sorry, if I realized you were on a date I would have…" He started jamming his thumb over his shoulder, indicating that he would have sent someone other than Elena's ex-boyfriend to serve the couple. Matt distinctly remembered Elena choosing Stefan over Damon, how could he forget? Yet, there was always room for her to change her mind now that everything would finally be calming down. He decided to be gentle with her, she _had_ given up her life to save him.

"I'm not Elena." Tatia finally revealed, a wide smile spreading onto her face as she looked up at the all—American boy. He seemed like the type of guy that everyone generally liked, which Tatia found heartwarming.

"Matt! We need you to break up a bar fight!" Someone behind the bar shouts across the room at him.

"Let me get it Matt, you just came out of the hospital a few days ago…" Damon insisted, getting up from the table and heading over to break it up.

"Ever since the whole Elena's-a-vampire incident he's become more nicer of a guy." He commented looking down at the girl sitting at the table. "So you must be Katherine then, right?"

"Wrong again." She mused shooting him her best cheeky grin. "I'm Tatia."

"There's a _third_ one of you!" He exclaimed taking a seat next to her. "Still human or…"

"Still Human."

"Well I'm kind of relieved and happy to hear that." He admitted looking at the uncanny resemblance that he held with his best friend. There was something different between them but he just couldn't quite pick it out. "It seems sometimes like I'm the only human left in Mystic Falls." Tatia tilted her head to the side and watched him with innocent curiosity. Was that his internal sadness? He felt outnumbered and powerless? "I mean, two of my best friends both ironically ex's of mine have been turned this past year, my best friend in the world has been converted from a werewolf to a hybrid, two of the guys in Elena's life are vampires with deeply rooted issues, Bonnie is a witch…" He rambled on and on with exasperated passion in his voice. He stopped and relaxed his tensing shoulders and let his gaze fall on Tatia again. ", and to top it all off my sister was turned and staked because she couldn't control herself."

And there is was. His internal sadness and it was eating away at him.

"I'm sorry." She said studying his face like it were a painting. "This is my fault."

"How?" His face crumpled up like a piece of paper at her response. She had just met him, just came into town, how could any of this be her fault?

"It was my blood that created vampires in the first place. If it weren't for my existence in the past, you would not have ever had to suffer such a loss, I am so sorry…Matt? That's what Damon called you, yeah?"

"Wait…would that mean that you're…y-you're the…"

'Original dopple ganger? Yes, I am. Bonnie resurrected me a few days ago." Her eyes flew down cast at telling him this information, almost as if she were ashamed.

To be honest, she was. Never before had she really realized how her death had preceded so many others. How could she have allowed something like this to happen? She'd caused the death of every person ever killed by a vampire. Their blood was on her hands!

"Alright Matt, it's all settled…" Damon said as he arrived back at the table with a tumbler of bourbon in his hands. He looked between Tatia's face and Matt's as he tried to process what had happened since he'd left. "What did you say to her?"

"Nothing…" Matt mumbled getting up from his seat, not letting his eyes stray from the look of guilt painted on Tatia's face.

"Nothing, my ass!"

"Damon, don't! He'd being honest, he didn't say anything rude or cruel to me. He's been a complete gentleman." Tatia interjected, finally looking up at Damon's face. She had tear stains scrolled down her cheeks. "It was nice meeting You Matt." Her voice feigned the cheeriness that her eyes lacked and it made Damon uncomfortable. How had he come to care so much about this girl in as little as four days?

He watched as Matt walked away, he checked over his shoulder to see her face again. He looked entirely caught off guard.

He didn't even ask, he just looked down at the second full tumbler of bourbon on the table. "Oh would you look at that, I accidentally bought a second bourbon after I broke up that fight. What should I do with this one then?"

Tatia looked up at him and smiled, snatching his drink and downing it in one long swig.

"Damn…" He uttered watching her with amusement.

**I decided to make this one longer since I haven't updated in a little while. Throwing some Damon/Tatia friendship action in there! Don't worry, they're ONLY friends. No love triangle in my plans as of yet. I'd like to give a massive shout out to **_**Man-Suz-She**_** for messaging me with help to my stories and **_**Crazychike **_**for such brilliant and detailed reviews. I totally appreciate them! **


	10. Chapter 10

"Are you sure you want to be left behind like this?" Damon asked Tatia as he rose from the table after a good long conversation about difference between teenagers then and today. Her jaw had dropped slightly upon hearing that people didn't typically get married until into their twenties. That was incredibly late in her eyes.

"Of course, I have my phone. I'll text you or call you, or whatever you call it, if I get lost." She assured him with an innocent nod of her head.

Damon's eyes grazed over her face with uncertainty, she shot him an affronted look and he raised his hands up defensively and walked out of the grill without looking back. He worried too much, she concluded. Elena had told her stories where Damon had been extremely over-protective and of course she'd never had appreciated his pushiness but she'd had appreciated his caring. He didn't seem to object to allowing her try her own thing for once.

It was a liberating experience.

Her eyes shot across the grill at a sight she'd only caught because she'd happened to be looking toward the doors after Damon had left a few minutes ago. Rebekah and Elijah had just entered the bar together, whispering to one another in low tones. No Nicklaus in sight. What were they doing out without their brother?

"Tatia!" Rebekah cheered when she noticed her gaze glued to them. She smiled and raced over to the blonde girl and throwing her arms around her. "Why is this the first time I've seen you? You die for a thousand years and you think that you're too cool for your best friend!"

'Of course not! Bekah, I cannot even begin to express how much I've missed you!" She cried with a hearty chuckle, gripping her friend tightly by the shoulders and holding her out to examine. It was incredibly odd to see her best friend dressed in this odd fashion as well. Rebekah had always been the most proper girl in the town. It was always quite a joke to each other that they'd become best friends, under Tatia's circumstances. "How's your passed thousand years gone?"

"I don't know, most of it was spent the same way as you." She admitted with a bitter scoff and a toss of her blonde hair over her shoulder. Tatia narrowed her eyes in suspicion. What had happened? What could have kept Rebekah, the most alive person she knew, from living? "I'll tell you about it later, when we're not standing in the middle of a public place."

And upon this answer, she had no other choice than to press her attention to the right of Rebekah, on the one person she'd been avoiding. Elijah was studying her face with painful astonishment. She'd looked literally exactly as she had the last time he'd seen her, minus the clothes. No make-up, long dark waves, big brown eyes, and flawless olive skin. Not a thing seemed to have changed within her at all.

_He'd been sitting by the tree all day, trying to wrap his head around the news his brother Kol had just reported back to him. He'd overheard mother and father discussing it with hushed tones. Klaus wasn't really his brother. Well, not his full brother anyways. It didn't really matter to him, bastard son or not he still loved him and considered him a brother; it was just a lot to wrap his head around._

_She came over the hill, toward him wearing a beautiful blue dress with crystalline beading sewn to it. She looked absolutely ravishing in it, there was no doubt of that, but where had she gotten the money to buy it from? Tatia had no job, she only helped his mother around the house in return for boarding in their home. That left little to no extra spending money to be buying nice gowns._

"_Hello Sire!" She shouted happily over to him and he rose from his spot to greet the young girl. He bowed at first but then took her face up into his hands and planted a tender kiss on her forehead. He looked at her closed eyes as she stood there, taking it all in._

"_I have to ask you something. Something that I've been trying to build the courage to ask for the past month but seemed utterly too cowardly to." He whispered, watching her eyes flutter open and search for his. She had to know this was coming for he could see nervousness in her eyes. He heaved a deep breath, digging in his pocket for the ring he'd had custom made for her by the village silver smith. "It cannot be a mystery to you how far my fondness for you travels. I would do anything to be with you forever and ever. I know how this place views you and I'd be willing to move somewhere new where no one knows either of us and we could start anew together…" He focused his eyes on the moon as he lowered himself down on one knee. Tatia's stomach churned and her head began to spin. This was not happening, it could not be happening. It was too good to be true. "I love you Tatia Petrova and I would be unbearably honored if you'd take my hand in marriage." He took his eyes off the sky and lowered them onto her face, expecting to see her smiling face._

_It was odd however, a twinkling dot had formed under the bottom of her eyelashes, and then it broke away and trickled down her face. This was followed by another in the other eye, and another, until they were running continually down her face. What had he said that had made her cry so powerfully?_

"_Tatia my love, whatever is the matter?" He asked, jumping up from his spot on the grass to wipe the tears from her soft skin._

"_That is, right there!" She sobbed stumbling back away from him. He had no idea what to do; she was falling apart at the seams right in front of him. He'd never seen her cry before, it was incredibly odd to watch something so beautiful by nature unravel before his eyes. He reached his hand out to cry and comfort the girl but she shook her head at him vigorously and took another step back from him. Something was direly wrong but he knew not what._

"_Tatia, you're beginning to frighten me. What has happened to make you shy away from me like this?" His voice was riddled with hurt. She did not mean to bruise his ego so but she could no longer go on playing this charade with him. Nicklaus had wanted to tell him weeks ago but she would not allow him, she wanted to be the one when the time was right. She felt as though that time had flown passed her the day that she'd comforted him by this very tree that one night before dinner._

_She'd allowed this affair go on far too long. If she did not tell Elijah now she never would. He did not deserve this and she no longer deserved him._

"_I love you too Elijah, believe me I do!" She replied in a weak trembling voice as she tried to pull herself together with no avail. _

"_Then say yes!"_

"_I cannot Elijah…" She whimpered sniffling and holding a guarding hand up between her and his approaching figure that was trying to console her. She did not want nor deserve it. "This has been my dream ever since I first met you. For you to propose and for us to get married. To have legit children of God we could be proud of. You'd make me extremely happy."_

"_Then why are you declining!" There was a frustrated anger present in his voice that made her flinch back in fear. He hadn't even heard the reasoning behind her decision yet. Once he did she'd be cast out into the street, all alone once more. It was a given._

_But she had to tell him the truth._

"_Because it took until you'd asked me to do this for me to realize that I wish it were another." She sobbed, planting her face in her hands and turning her back on Elijah too ashamed to face him._

"_You're in love with another?" His voice sounded dejected. Broken._

_And it was all her fault._

_She nodded her head, praying that he would not ask her who._

"_Who is he?" His voice rang, however there was a flat tone to it as if he already had an idea._

"_You're brother…" She muttered, looking over her shoulder at him. Forcing herself to drink in the look of torture she's caused. "It's Nicklaus, sire."_

_His eyes jetted to the ground in defeat, he'd noticed the two were getting a little too close for comfort. He noticed the way they'd look at each other when they thought no body was watching. He never said a word about it to either of them for the sake of trust. He wanted to believe it wasn't happening. He wanted to believe he could trust that his brother would remain loyal and Tatia faithful. However the more he thought about it, the more he realized he had less and less of a reason to be angry with Tatia. She wasn't necessarily HIS yet, now was she? She wasn't engaged to him. She'd rejected him and his love. "I understand."_

"_Y-you do?" She turned around to study his face with a surmountable amount of surprise written on her face._

"_I do, but that does not mean I forgive you."_

"Hello Tatia, it's certainly been a long time." He said as he dropped his conscious back into reality from his flashback.

"Elijah…or are people calling you Eli in this century?" She teased, trying her hardest to break the ice.

"No, no, it's still Elijah. I like my full name, it has a nice regal ring to it. Don't you agree?" He smirked, automatically deciding to give it up.

"Indeed I think it does, m'Lord." She said with a faux curtsey and smile in return to his sly comment.

Wordlessly they communicated through their eyes that they'd forgiven one another.

**I thought it'd be nice to show you guys what had happened through Elijah's eyes. What do you think? Should he have forgiven her? I guess this is slightly filler but I had to get Tatia out and away from Damon…**_**why**_** you ask? You'll have to wait 'til next time to see!**

**Reviews are always nice!**

**(p.s thank you guys for reviewing! I'm so excited that this story has been receiving such positive feedback!)**


	11. Chapter 11

There was something in the night time air in Mystic Falls that night. The chilly summer's night wind was blowing around, pushing the dust, and haphazardly disposed trash whirling around in the gusts. The wind wasn't the only thing you could sense in the air as the night progressed however. There was paranoia stricken in the humidity, frustration in the pushy masses of wind billowing around, and lust in the spine crawling chill of the air that was uncharacteristic of that time of the year.

Somewhere, lurking through the empty streets, was one of the most popular guys in town. His parents were known and respected by everyone, yet there he stood looking disappointed with his life. No one seemed to realize that this boy was not himself any longer. That this boy was someone else's disguise while this other guy was hiding.

He had been trying to walk off the odd suspicion that all were out to kill him. They always were out to kill him, that he'd already known. Yet, this was the first time that he hadn't any idea what they were trying to do to achieve this common and tired old goal. He was not a step ahead of the game as he normally was and he did not like it one bit.

He'd been trying to determine whether or not to visit Caroline after their falling out at Elena's a couple of days ago. They hadn't talked once since and he was beginning to worry that she was going to break up with Tyler if he didn't make up with her soon. Yet, every time that he came even remotely close to a romantic idea as to reconcile, there Tatia was. Standing in his way. He kept trying to shake it off as nothing, as him simply being taken aback by her return but he knew deep in his gut that this was only an excuse to keep his distance. The fact of the matter was that he had loved Tatia so very deeply then. And he'd said it so himself before.

That kind of love never dies.

He was just passing the grill as he had to do in order to get to Caroline's house when he'd overheard a conversation going on from inside. The first lines he caught were:

"_Wrong again. I'm Tatia."_

"_There's a third one of you! Still human or…"_

"_Still Human."_

And he kept listening right on through:

"_Damon, don't! He'd being honest, he didn't say anything rude or cruel to me. He's been a complete gentleman." _

Jealousy reared its ugly head on Klaus as he thought about what Tatia was doing. She hated talking to new people and there she was chatting it up with this…_this….PUNY human boy._ She had a crush on him, that much was certain and he'd have to fix that somehow. He knew that he could easily snap that boy in half like a toothpick. A very appetizing tooth pick but still very fragile just the same.

He was ready to burst into the grill, throw Tatia over his shoulder, and drag her back to his home when he heard Rebekah's voice chirping over the crowd and at Tatia. He scoffed and rolled his eyes in annoyance. Of course his sister would hunt her down and try to nuzzle her way back into Tatia's heart. All she ever wanted was a best friend and Tatia had been her first and only best friend in a thousand years. Now he was going to have to fight Rebekah for her attention. Stupid girl.

Once they'd said their good byes, his ears perked at the echoing sound of her footstep approaching the door. She was leaving. He was standing right there on the sidewalk. She would see him. He quickly checked himself over, so frantic that he'd almost forgotten that he wasn't in his own body. He took a deep breath and tried his best to act relaxed as she exited the building. Her eyes automatically went to his frame in the moonlight, trying to decide whether or not she should go and talk to him.

"Oh, Tatia…hello love." He decided to point her out first, but automatically cringed at what he'd said. Tyler never said things like that, he should of said _Oh hey, what's up Tatia?_ But it was too late now. He'd said it and she was walking over towards him with a suspicious look on her face.

"What could you possibly want Tyler?" She asked glaring at him without any conservation. She'd remembered all too well the way he'd talked to her when she first "met" him at Elena's house the other day. He was rude, arrogant, and nosey. She did not appreciate such behavior, especially considering the fact that he'd been raised in a time period where manners meant absolutely everything. "Come to disrespect me some more?"

"No…no, I was actually on my way to Caroline's place." He said looking between her and the end of the sidewalk where you turn to go to Caroline's house.

"I don't if she wants to see you after everything that you said. She's on my side." Tatia replied in a snarky tone, oncing him over in a very modern teenage girl manner and beginning to walk away from him.

"Now wait one second, come back here!" He said, taking grip of her elbow and restraining her from creating any more distance between them. She looked up at him with a surprised gaze and did not dare be the first to turn away from him. He looked so sure, so powerful, and it was hott—as the modern person called an attractive feature in someone. She looked into his chocolate brown eyes and dived under the surface in search for the evergreens that she'd fallen for.

Though the earthy brown never sprouted green grass, the fiery sun that had always radiated intensely out of his iris was definitely present, and she just knew. She knew that he was in there, that it was truly him cloaked as another person. She would recognize that passion anywhere, whether she be dead or alive, asleep or wide awake.

"Yes…" Her voice quivered as the air seemed to shift around them, the people passing by them being nothing more than blurred figures. Simple beings and nothing more than that.

Now more than ever Klaus wanted to break down and tell her who he was, but he couldn't. It would blow the lid right off of his cover and he'd never be able to survive the scorn that the scandal would ensue. He would be dead quicker than he would blink and Tatia would be forced to move on. The thought repulsed him in every way that it possibly could. The thought of her attention being turned on any other man made him literally sick to the stomach. He honestly thought he was going to throw up all over her if he thought about the possibility that his importance had been desiccated leaving a void of nothingness that she could easily fill with that all-american sweet heart of a guy.

Klaus made a promise to himself as he stood, observing Tatia. He promised that if he ever caught—or even found out about—the Donovan boy laying a single hand on her then he would eliminate his presence in this world as simply as it had once existed.

"N-nothing…" He replied, touching back down to reality and letting his grip on Tatia's arm slacken and drop back down to his side. "I must apologize, I don't know what had just come over me. I had no right to grab you. It is my dearest wish that you forgive me."

"Sure…no problem…well, have a good night Tyler."

"Same to you."

She disappeared over the pavement, in the direction she had come. She was going back to the Gilbert residence, most likely to go to bed. It was getting rather late, wasn't it? He turned on his heel and walked in the opposite direction as he was heading previously, making his way home without bothering to finish his mission to get Caroline to forgive him for snapping at her.

He just didn't see the point in it.

**Ooooh! Things are starting to heat up! Klautia will become much more prominent starting…NOW! Please review, because I'm not insulting your intelligence by writing in computer lingo ;D**


	12. Chapter 12

The next morning, when Elena woke up the very first thing that she did was creak open the door to Jenna's old bedroom and peak in through the crack. There Tatia lay, wrapped up in the white comforter, in a deep sleep to recuperate from her night out last night. Elena found herself smiling at the sight and crept away from the door, allowing it to snap closed with a gentle _click._

She walked down the steps of the stairs, feeling pretty content with her current life. The only thing that she still had to sort out was the whole Damon thing. Sure, she'd chosen Stefan initially but the longer that she stood in her decision the more she was unsure if it had been the right one for her.

She loved Stefan, he made her feel safe and there was so much good in his heart. One the other hand however Damon was exciting, he made her heart race with a single gaze. Stefan made her smile when all hope seemed lost—which seemed a lot more often than not lately—but Damon stumped her entirely. Whenever he was around, her mind would scramble for answers, constantly reminding her that is she did not think quickly, thoroughly, and clever enough then she'd look silly. Stefan was so likable; he could get along with just about anyone. _Hell, even Klaus liked him._ Damon didn't have many friends but those few that he did have he'd travel to the ends of the earth to keep safe. Even though that Machiavellian attribute could be very touching in most aspects, it was also one of his most disliked weaknesses.

Her head was beginning to hurt from the circles it was running in.

"Hello Elena…" A voice sounded from her living room.

Her ears perked at the sound, confused as to why anyone was in her house at such an early hour. She turned the corner and automatically wished that she'd brought back-up when she did.

There Tyler stood, with his best friend in a headlock, hanging limp in his arms. Elena made an odd wailing noise from the very back of her throat. The deep red blood coated and trickled down Tyler's chin and throat like a rain drop rolling down a window pane. She quickly searched for the sound of a beating heart and it brought her slight relief when she could hear the double tapping beat like a drum. Matt was alive still, just unconscious.

"Thought I was clueless to the fact that you were all onto me, did you?" He stated in a tone that was unnervingly calm and collected, as if he'd just bumped into her on the street. "I want my body back. Though I've rather enjoyed my stay in hotel Lockwood, I prefer my home much better"

"Klaus…" Elena whimpered, gazing with tears pushing their way up. "Why did you do this? There was no reason to attack Matt!"

"I needed leverage, I gave you my word that I'd stay away from Jeremy when you gifted me back my sister, and he pissed me off last night. There is all the reason to attack the boy."

"Leverage? For what?"

"I've already told you that I want my body back. Give me your word on it that you'll do everything in your power to get it for me and I won't kill pretty boy over here." He uttered, staring intensely back at Elena's frightened eyes.

"But, I have no control over that! Bonnie is still trying to find the casket with your body in it!" Elena shouted back at him through her tears. His eyes narrowed in displeasure as he shifted his hands so that they were placed on either side of Matt's head. "NO! WAIT!" He paused, looking at her with a knowing smirk on his face that Elena wanted so badly to just slap right off. "Fine. I give you my word that I'll get you your body back."

Klaus smirked at her and let Matt's body drop to the floor. He simply stepped over the body, looking entirely too smug for Elena's taste. How could he be so uncaringly manipulative and belligerent all of the time? They were already trying to get his body back without the theatrics, why did he feel he needed to resort to this?

"Where's Tatia?" He questioned aloud, listening intently to the sound of her beating heart upstairs. "Her room it sounds like."

"How could she have _ever_ loved a man like you?" She shouted, shoving her torn open wrist in Matt's mouth, and nursing her blood into his system to fix any of the possible damages Klaus may have caused.

This question made the smile wipe right off his face and he froze, his back remaining to the new vampire dopple ganger. He'd wondered this question himself; he'd been asking it for a thousand years. He slowly tilted his head so that he was looking at her over his shoulder with his death glare that warned those around him that they were treading in dangerous waters. Elena gulped down the rest of her resentful words and focused her attention on Matt.

"Let everyone know that if I do not have my body back by next week—not only am I going to kill off your meaningless human friend there—but I'm also going to be taking Tatia off your hands, willingly or by brute force; it's your guys' choice really."

"WHY?"

"You resurrected her for a reason; don't think I'm that foolish. She's somehow a weapon to kill me. I'm quite sure how exactly yet, but I will not have any of this getting in my way. Let Bonnie know that I'm done playing good polite school boy."

"How can you just throw people's lives away as unimportant?"

"Asking nicely doesn't get you anything. When you've got something another person loves or wants, it gets shit done." He eyes widened at what he just said.

Tatia was the leverage they needed to get rid of him.

Once this realization hit him he knew what he had to do if was to get himself out of this situation. He said not a word to Elena as he sprinted at vampire speed up to the hallway of bedrooms. He ripped open every door in search of the sleeping beauty. Elena was right behind him, trying to slow him by grabbing at his hands and arms but he was much stronger than the novice vampire and flicked her off of him as if she were a clingy cat that was annoying him.

Each door that he'd ripped open was an unsuccessful attempt as he tore down the hallway, shaking Elena off at each stop. The girl was mad to think that she could compete with him. Elena held her breath as they'd finally reached Jenna's old bedroom, it was the last door in the hall. He looked over at her with a look of triumph on his face, nothing could stop him now. Klaus kicked the door right off of its hinges effortlessly and stepped inside.

He panned his gaze across the room, searching for the sleeping girl. The bed was made, the lamp was off, the closet held no signs of life. The room was empty.

Elena's brow tensed up in confusion. Though she was totally relieved that Tatia was not there, it made no sense that she was not in the room. She had just checked on her a few minutes ago. Where had she gone without either of their notice?

Klaus grabbed the wooden chair at the desk where Jenna used to do her work and chucked it at the wall with a frustrated and angry scream. It almost reminded Elena of a battle cry. The chair splintered into pieces and scattered across the room right as he turned towards Elena in the doorway. She paused her breathing and observed him with petrifying fear. He was going to attack her and there was nothing she could do. No one survived once Klaus decided to kill them.

To her surprise however, he did nothing but storm out of her house grumbling to himself.

As she heard the door down the stairs slam, her phone in her pocket began to vibrate. She looked at the screen and saw that someone had just sent her a text message.

_Was on my way to see you and I heard the conversation going on in the living room. Got Tatia out safely. She's at my house.—Stefan_

**What do you guys think? Review. I'm making no promises, I learned from last time around, but I may post a second time today. Only if I feel like it though. love you guys!**


	13. Chapter 13

"I really can't thank you enough Stefan. I think you may have just saved my life." Tatia said with a smile at the un-favored vampire brother. She'd never seen Stefan in a positive way until he'd rushed her out before Klaus could snatch her up. She was confused at first when he appeared at her window, motioning her to come out onto the roof with him. He didn't really explain until after she'd come out and he'd picked her up and sprinted out of their hearing range. He couldn't let this innocent girl die once again due to Klaus' troubles. It just wasn't fair.

"Anytime." He said with a smile, handing her the towel she'd requested and telling her where the bathroom was located. "Elijah is coming over today to discuss Klaus' body, just so you know."

"Okay, thank you again Stefan."

"Stop thanking me Tatia. There's no need. I'm sure you would have done the same if you were able."

With that said she nodded to him and walked into the bathroom for her shower.

Meanwhile, Elena was knocking on Bonnie's door. This morning's little visit had her completely rattled up. She had to get Klaus his body back, who knew what he'd do in addition to the stuff that he already promised. If she didn't aide Bonnie and she couldn't find it then she'd feel responsible for one of her kindest friend's death. That was a burden that she alone could not bear.

"Elena? What are you doing here?" Bonnie asked as she opened the door, her heavy looking spell book under her arm.

"I want to come with you to find Klaus' body." Elena said in a very serious tone that she only used when she was on a dire mission. Bonnie tried to protest but she shook her head at her, cutting her off. "Listen to me Bonnie, he had Matt around the neck and had _bit_ him! Did you see your best friend's blood pouring out of his neck and over Klaus' chin? No, then you won't understand why I have to do this."

"Okay, okay! You can come with me. I could use company on the road anyways."

The two best friends smiled at one another and Bonnie let Elena come in to help her pack essentials for their trip.

The steaming hot water poured down onto her, relaxing her tense muscles upon contact. She looked through the fogged up glass, into Damon's bathroom. She didn't feel comfortable using Stefan's bathroom due to the fact that she didn't seem to like him as a person until about an hour ago. She washed the conditioner out of her hair, the smell of Damon surrounding the steam around her. She turned the jets off and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a large fuzzy white towel around her.

Where was indoor plumbing and fuzzy towels when she was alive last?

She quickly dressed, pulling on the clothes that Stefan had laid out for her to wear. It was some clothes that Elena had left in the bedroom she'd stayed in when she was still staying there, trying to adjust to being a vampire. She pulled on the t-shirt and shorts, pulling her hair up into a high ponytail. She let her dark raven ponytail bounce against her neck.

She walked out of Damon's room and towards the stairs. She was about to turn onto the stair case that led into their main room.

"Bonnie departed this morning in search of Klaus' body; hopefully she'll be back before the end of the week." The familiar British accent reported with such eloquence that could only belong to Elijah.

"I hope so too." Damon responded, the sound of a drink being poured into the glass reaching Tatia's ears.

She gasped and pressed herself against the wall, praying that they didn't hear her. Neither seemed to acknowledge her presence or even pause to listen who was there. They must not have been paying her any attention otherwise they would have heard her.

"Want to know what I find how interesting, Damon?" Elijah asked, his voice sounded incredibly intrigued by whatever was going on inside of his brain. Damon looked over at Elijah, looking curious as well. "I find it incredibly interesting how close you've gotten to my ex-lover, Tatia."

"Don't get jealous, Elijah. It's not a flattering color on you."

"She's just a girl, Damon."

"Relax, I'm not gunna even think about going there. Besides…" He turned on his sarcastic tone, tired of people getting on his case about being close with Tatia. Why couldn't he just be friends with a girl for once without people assuming that there was a hidden agenda behind it? So he decided to shut everyone up. The make everyone get off of his back finally. He was going to lie. "…the only reason I'm so close with her is I want to find out what really happened. Why should she want to help us instead of Klaus?"

"The only reason you're talking to her is because you want information?" Elijah repeated Damon's words with a voice filled with disbelief. "I wish I could say I was surprised. If you wanted _that _information then all you had to do was ask."

Tatia stood there, wishing there was something for her to grab and chuck at Damon's face. How could he do that to her? Sure, she'd heard from other people that he had a selfish side to him but she never thought that he actually was that self-centered. She wanted to scream but she just sat there, listening to the two of them because truth be told, she only knew half of the story.

"It all started the night Klaus came home with Henrick's body…"

_He had been the first to see Klaus's figure emerging over the horizon, exiting the woods. At first he thought that the figure in his arms was Tatia and his heart began pounding hard enough to hear in his head. He had seen her sneak out of the house and chose to allow her to do whatever she needed to do. He had forgotten it was a full moon night. However the closer he came, he realized that the figure was far too small to be Tatia and he relaxed. Where was she then?_

_The closer he came, the more and more detail he could see, and the more detail he could see the more he wished that he didn't see it. It certainly wasn't Tatia in Nicklaus' arms. It was Henrick. His brother was sobbing as he ran towards the house and the tears poured over his cheeks like a waterfall. Elijah looked at the two with a devastated expression._

"_What happened?" He gasped rushing over to the two or them._

"_I-I…we snuck out together to go and see the wolves transform." By now the entire family was present and kneeling overtop Henrick's lifeless form. There was something that had Elijah more distraught than the rest of his family. He was best friends with his brother, he knew him better than anyone else in the world. He watched Klaus as he kept his eyes diverted to the ground. Klaus ALWAYS looked people in the eyes whenever he spoke, he would never keep himself from that type of intimacy._

_Which meant he was lying._

_Elijah had always been good at telling when a person was lying and he was horrifically disappointed that he'd come to the conclusion that his brother was lying now. Why though? Why did he feel as though he needed to lie? I was obvious just by looking at the body that his brother was mauled by an animal._

"_We have to get rid of the body; I don't want the neighbors ogling us like a freak show!" Mikael commanded his sons, checking over his shoulder for any faces in the windows. All he found was a dark alley and candle-lit windows._

_Klaus lifted his drooping lids, allowing his blurry vision to fall onto his brother. He could see the suspicion clear on his face. He knew that he was lying. He was sure to silently communicate to not say a word and he'd explain later._

"_Boys!" Mikael shouted, trying to fetch the Mikaelson's attention away from the youngest member of their family's corpse. "I need you to go find a place to bury Henrick's body."_

"_Surely he deserves a funeral!" Nicklaus dared to counter against his father's orders._

"_We cannot afford one!"_

"_Father! He—"_

"_You heard me, boy!"_

"_THIS IS HENRICK!" He burst, quieting the entire lot to his attention. Now he began to understand the phrase 'silent as the grave.' This was the first time he'd ever actually felt as though he had his father's attention on anything. "This isn't some member of our livestock that starved to death or was attacked by a wolf! This is my brother, you're SON, OUR HENRICK!"_

"_ENOUGH!" His—technically speaking—stepfather's voice thundered reaching the same frantic volume at the bastard before him. Esther shot her husband a warning glance, reminding him of the promise he'd made to treat Klaus as an equal in comparison to his brothers. Mikael took a deep breath, forcing his near non-existent tolerance to stretch all the more thinner. "Enough." He repeated in a softer, more exasperated tone than before and walked into the house with his wife in tow._

_When he entered the shack Mikael saw Esther's friend, Ayanna standing there staring with sorrowful eyes. Henrick had always been her favorite of the kids, yet over top of that sadness stood a determined look. He'd been bothering her about doing something the fight back against the wolves for months now and she'd refused, it was the way nature had intended it to be. Yet, he didn't seem to understand or care._

"_I told you this would happen if we didn't do something about it!" He snapped, beginning to pace the floor while biting his thumb. Ayanna just rolled her eyes at the man, hating the way he allowed his emotions (particularly his anger) run away with his sense. "You remember what we spoke of a few weeks ago?"_

"_How could I forget? You kept screaming in my face." She muttered in an unenthused tone. "But the spell that Esther and I would have to cast in order to achieve your goal would not only take a lot of power but it would also spell out some consequences for you lot!"_

_He narrowed his eyes at her and walked around his wife so that he was standing behind her, laying his hand over her waist. "Our family could live forever."_

_Esther looked swayed to his opinion. She'd never agreed with him until now, when she'd actually lost one of her beloved children to the wolves. Now it seemed much more rational to perform the spell and prevent anything like this from ever happening again. The only regret she had at the moment was not bending to his whim sooner._

"_Yes, but at what cost! This magic that you speak of breeds consequence." She turned to her friend, now begging for her support. "This is the making of a PLAGUE, Esther!" Her friends face perked slightly from being addressed, she wasn't even listening to her really; her mind was far off worrying about Henrick. The longer Ayanna stared at her the more she realized that she was fighting a losing fight. She nodded her head, understanding her friend's outrageous decision. "The spirits WILL turn on you."_

"_Please, Ayanna." Esther pleaded, she didn't feel save from losing her children anymore and she knew that she could not preform the spell alone. But Ayanna shook her head at Esther, she could not allow herself to defy the circle of life. The balance of nature would be thrown out of turn and she would not allow herself to become an accessory to that._

"_I will have NO part in it." She responded, much to the devastation of her best friend. Ayanna could not stay and look upon the pathetic display Esther was exhibiting. She was never more disappointed in her friend's foolishness than right now. When she'd accepted the marriage proposal from Mikael she was upset enough with her but the fact that she'd allowed him to influence her sense like this was just too much for her and so she walked out of the hut._

_Mikael watched the girl go and shut the door behind her with a sigh. There had to be another way. As he turned to approach his wife he could see the tears in her eyes. She looked torn apart inside and he knew at that moment that this had to change, he could not allow this to happen to this family any longer._

"_If she will not protect our family," He started, reaching up and stroking her face with his calloused hand. Esther turned her cheek into it, proud that he was showing her some sort of affection. It was a rare occasion indeed that he performed a loving act as such as that. She looked up into his eyes with hope that this death had changed something inside of him. That he'd be softened by the pain. That he was going to step up to the plate and protect them himself. "Then it is in your hands alone, my love." She looked down in disappointment but nodded, whether he'd said something romantic to her or not she knew that he was right._

"…So she did it. She waited until dawn, when the wolves were human once more and she set off for the day. None of us knew what she was doing but that wasn't the only thing we began to wonder as the day went on." Elijah continued to tell the story, looking straight into Damon's eyes with a class that only he alone could possess. "Where was Tatia?"

"_What is the matter Esther? I've gotten the children all dressed up and ready for the ritual! So please, inform me as to why it seems that the spell you've casted is not ready!" Mikael shouted, peaking around the corner at his children sitting in the other room together, chatting about the odd behavior of their parents._

"_Th-the spell is a bit more intricate than I thought…" Esther murmured, folding her arms across her chest and walking back over to her book's place on the table. She'd been staring at the page for nearly twenty minutes, trying to determine what she was to do about the last part of the spell._

"_What do you mean, INTRICATE?" He questioned, walking towards the back door that lead to their neighbor's farm. He began to pace, unsure if he had the good temper to withstand this jerking around emotionally._

"_The spell calls for blood…" She finally admitted, scanning the page once more to be sure she'd read it right all those other times. "HUMAN blood."_

"_But…whose?" Mikael questioned turning towards the window to find a small girl with long dark raven waves tip toe out from behind the shed off across the field._

"How'd he do it?" Damon asked the only moral original family member. "Stabbed, burned, crucified?"

"I volunteered." Her voice rang out; causing both men's head's to snap over at her figure sliding around the corner and down the stairs.

"Tatia…I…um…" Damon stammered, jumping up from his seat trying to process all this at once. Tatia was at his house, against his prior knowledge. She'd most likely overheard his lie about not caring about her. Finally, she'd volunteered to die for the Mikaelson's to create the demonic vampire race.

"I felt guilty that Henrick had died because of Nicklaus and I. I wanted to make it right. A life for a life. Mine wasn't worth much by that point anyways."

"It mattered to Klaus and me." Elijah countered with a tone of bitter anger that neither had known was possible coming from him.

"Yes, BOTH of you. I didn't want to tear you guys apart. I had to undo what I had done. The guilt was _KILLING_ me. Literally."

_Mikael had decided to keep guard of the room and to keep the kids, especially Nicklaus and Elijah away from the room. Esther and Tatia were talking, mainly saying their farewells after all the time they had spent with one another._

"_He loves you, you know." Esther said, taking out a blue stone knife with grey feathers dangling from the handle by leather strings._

"_Yes I know, Elijah even proposed but he's better off without me now."_

"_I'm talking about Nicklaus. I'm not blind; I have a set of perfectly working eyes. Anyone with a brain can see that you are both wild about one another."_

_Tatia looked down, feeling embarrassed and slightly bashful that their mother knew about the split lover affair. Without warning Esther slashed Tatia down the forearm, covering the girl's mouth to keep her scream from echoing out into the other room. Tatia held her arm over the bubbling cauldron that appeared to be filled with boiling wine. Yet over in the mortar Tatia could see ground wood, white oak from the looks of it._

"_Are you prepared to die?"_

"_I think I've been for years, but I didn't want to take the way of the coward." She confessed, looking up towards the sky praying to God that he forgive her. "Do it and get it over with."_

_Esther raised her hand up into the air, chanting something unintelligible and plunged the knife down._

"I died quickly afterward." Tatia said, tears forming in her eyes, trembling from where she stood. "All you had to do was ask, Damon. I would have told you. You didn't have to PRETEND to be my friend." With that said Tatia turned and walked out of the house without another word to either of them.

"Wow…"

"That's not the end of the story, Damon…" Elijah admitted, staring at the door that his first love just walked out of. Damon rumpled his brow and looked at Elijah with a thirst for more information. "She doesn't know it but after we were turned, the spell wasn't final until her body was turned to ash. Therefore, father and mother hid her body up within the leaves of the tree and when we burned it to the ground, Klaus and I were unknowingly disposing of our love's body."

Tatia kept walking, not sure of where she was going exactly but all she knew for sure was that she was hurt. Her feelings were hurt by Damon. Her heart hurt from seeing Nicklaus. Her conscious was relentlessly tearing her apart with the blame for not only Henrick's death but also the creation of the world's most dangerous predators. She kept walking until she was entirely lost. She did her best not to panic as she looked around at her unfamiliar surroundings. She dug into her pocket to call Stefan on her cellphone but found that her fingers wrapped around a five dollar bill and nothing else.

"What is a beautiful young woman such as yourself doing out alone?" A familiar voice cooed behind her. She remembered that line from somewhere.

"_Leave me alone! Get off me! Let me go!"_

_But he wouldn't stop until he got what he wanted. But she wouldn't go down without a fight. He began ripping at her cloak, freeing it from her shoulders._

She snapped out of it, refusing to relive that horrible nightmare of a night.

"What do you want Nicklaus?" She asked without turning around, the malice in her voice taking the disguised hybrid by surprise.

**Heyy guys! Sorry for such a long wait! This is really where things come full circle with Tatia's character and so I wanted it to be perfect. Hopefully no one is confused (yet…) and if you find that you do get confused just message me and I'll try to help clear it up for you. I made it a bit longer than most my chapters to make it up to you guys. I hope you enjoyed it and I'll post again soon! Review :D**


	14. Chapter 14

"What exactly do you think that this is going to accomplish, Nicklaus?" Tatia asked her captor as she remained tied up in the backseat of a—presumably stolen—black sports car some sort. Tatia couldn't really tell due to the fact that she barely knew what a sports car looked like. He raised his eyes up to meet hers in the rear view mirror.

"Don't call me that." He replied in a flat tone, returning his eyes back to the road directly after the words were out of his mouth.

"What? Nicklaus? Why? That is your name."

"Yeah, I go by Klaus these days, Love."

"Whatever you say," She said with a sarcastic ton, causing Klaus to look up into the mirror again. "Nicklaus." His eyes narrowed at her but she didn't even wince at the sight of his heedful eyes like everyone else seemed to. Quiet on the contrary she smirked at him with a teasing grin and eye roll. "Oh, aren't you _scary_. Honestly Nicklaus, a thousand years and this is the best you got? Elena showed me some…what did she call them again? Movies, I think…Well anyways, in the ones that she told me were produced with the purpose to frighten people, the bad guys we quite demented. A lot worse than you; that's for sure."

"Can't you just call me Nick? Bekah still does and you were the one who gave me that nickname."

"Nope, sorry Nicklaus."

"You are INFURIATING!"

"Did time make me more tolerable in your memories?"

Klaus heaved a deep breath, doing his best to keep his temper under control.

By this point she was quite content with herself for getting Klaus all riled up. Who knew what he'd do next, but she found herself excited by the danger he was capable of. She knew that one toe too far over the line would set off his temper. But why should she be worried about him? He shouldn't be complaining at all! He wasn't the one tied up in the back seat of a random car, zooming towards God only knew where. The main trouble was that she was unsure if they were even still within the city limits of Mystic falls or not.

"Where are you taking me?" She finally found the guts to ask.

"Home." Was all he gave in return. However this answer caused even more questions to begin to race inside her head. His home? Her home? Where their old house used to be? Was he bringing her back to her grave? Perhaps he was driving her back to Elena's. Though the last one seemed highly unlikely, Klaus didn't seem like the type to show any sort of mercy, but she could still hope, couldn't she?

They pulled up next to a rather large lumber house. The surroundings were nothing but forest, with a paved driveway that led out onto the nearest road. Truth be told it was a rather beautiful scenery to have a home but also creepily secluded from the rest of the world. There didn't appear to be any sort of neighbors. Of course, why would he _want_ neighbors? He couldn't have anyone nearby to witness any of the shenanigans that go down around this house.

Tatia waited patiently as Klaus hopped out of the car and rounded to her door in the back. He pulled the door open, staring at the sight he'd laid before him.

"What are you going to do, Nicklaus? Throw me over your shoulder like a caveman and drag me into your cave?" She spat at him, only to have him follow what she said to a near tee. She was flung over his shoulder carelessly and carries into his house. She couldn't see much due the angling, all she saw was the different types of flooring whizz by underneath her. This was ridiculous and incredibly surreal.

She continued to spit wise alack cracks at Klaus and it was begging to get under his skin. He flung her down on his couch, huffing out angry breath. He glared down at her, trying to figure out how he'd ever be able to stop loving the woman before him. He'd have to find a way to wean himself off of her. But how? Killing her would do no good, she'd been dead for a millennium and he'd still hadn't been able to stop himself from caving in weak.

They stood there just watching each other, trying to gauge a certain level of disdain that may have been developed over the years. They didn't like one another at first the last time they had met, maybe this was the same sort of situation. Or maybe they'd both been changed forever, neither one of them able to tweak themselves for the other.

"Tyler…what are you doing here? And with Tatia?" Rebekah feigned as she walk through the threshold into the living parlor. Klaus rumbled about how the act could die now; Tatia knew it was him. Rebekah's eyebrows shot up in surprise, he had told her after all he did to pretend to other people that he was the jocky Lockwood boy.

"I've things to attend to, keep your eye on the zombie until I get back." He uttered to his sister before turning and charging out of the room with a commanding step.

"Don't be offended by the whole _zombie _remark. My brother can be a bit—"

"Dramatic. I know Rebekah; he is no stranger to me." Tatia interrupted her best friend, reminding her that she had indeed known her brother once upon a time. "On the contrary, I find his comment quite humorous actually."

Something flickered across the blond vampire's face; it was a moment of recognition. Her eyes widened only slightly, a small smile hinted at her lips, and some color reached her cheeks at the thought of it. Tatia narrowed her gaze on the other girl, trying to decipher what she could possibly mean by this expression. Rebekah shook her head a little, trying to push the moment away from their conversation. Tatia was not one to give up easily however.

"Rebekah Mikaelson, you have never kept anything from me as long as I've ever known you. Now I demand you tell me what that face was for right this moment!" Tatia said with a playful tone, staring Rebekah straight in the eyes. There was the sparkle of mischief and wonder that had always been there. At this moment she realized that her best friend from a thousand years ago was truly back, breathing, and sitting before her with the same enchanting smirk on her face.

"How is it even possible?" She wondered aloud.

"How is what possible?"

"He is so much harsher than he was last time you saw him…"

"Are we talking about Nicklaus my dear Rebekah?"

"He's done a lot of wrong, he's killed so many people. Not that I'm much better but, you are pure and caring…"

"What are you getting at Bekah?"

"I'm speaking of the fact that you are still in love with my brother!" She burst, throwing her hands up in the air as if it should have been obvious.

"Don't be silly Bekah." Tyler's voice echoed from the doorway. Both the girls whirled around with a gasp to spot Tyler standing there with an irritable look upon his face. "Leave."

The only original sister rolled her eyes at her brother as she got up and left the room, glancing back at her tied up friend with an empathetic smile. She wasn't the only one who had been held captive by Klaus. Her brother made her a slave of the dagger in a box for most of her life. She decided that she had to do something because of the fact that she'd never wish that fate on anyone else.

**I'm quite sure that this is the longest I've gone since updating! I'm very sorry! I hit a bit of writers block, it happens. Please review if you still believe in me and this story!**


	15. Chapter 15

Things were strange.

Damon did not know why, but whenever he and Elena were left alone together he felt as though they were doing something wrong. As if he was violating the trust and respect that his brother held him in. He knew that they had both promised to not be bitter over anything with Elena any longer now that she'd finally admitted to herself that she'd held the older Salvatore in a much more romantic light that everyone had already known of but her and Damon. Now that the truth had finally been put out in open air, he wasn't sure how to proceed. Should he make a move or wait for her?

This was what he was thinking as he sat by the fire with a half empty glass of whiskey pressed to his forehead. When he first started drinking he was trying to figure out how to apologize to Tatia for lying to Elijah as he had, but the more alcohol that hit his system the more Tatia had transformed into Elena. There was a knock at his door and before he could get up to answer it, the door was opened, and the blonde vampire walked in.

"I see you've come back." He said rising up from his seat and quickly pulling himself together flawlessly. She'd never know that he was upset only seconds ago. "Don't feel bad, they always come back."

"Shut up Damon, I'm not here for you and your meaningless sex." Rebekah spat at him with an incredulous shake of her head. He was the most aggravating man alive. "It's Tatia…"

This shut him up. He wasn't teasing her anymore now that he'd been made aware that she knew where she was. He was incredibly worried when she raced out of the house and he hadn't gotten an angry call from Elena. He'd hope that it just mean that she'd kept the story to herself but, it Rebekah knew something then that most likely meant that Tatia hadn't gone directly home after leaving this morning. He fought through his drunken haze to focus on what the blonde was trying to tell him.

"My brother thought it would be a brilliant idea to kidnap her."

"What? Why?" Damon sneered, already setting his tumbler down to go and retrieve the helpless girl.

"I'm not sure what his plans are but I can promise you this: he will not kill her."

"Oh yes, very comforting." He shrugged the vow over his shoulder, not really caring what Rebekah had to say about her brother's intentions. All he knew for sure was that his best friend was in trouble. After Alaric had died, he hadn't felt close to anyone but Elena and Stefan. He could help but care for Tatia. "If Elena asks, tell her I'm on the rescue."

"Damon, you don't honestly believe that you can take on Klaus by yourself!"

"Let me worry about that." He used as his departing words as he slipped out of the house, leaving the original vampire alone in his house.

Elena and Bonnie had been searching the storage unit site that Klaus had been daggered in. The casket had mysteriously disappeared after Alaric's body had become lifeless. As Damon told it, after he finally lifted the corpse off of him to go find out what happened to Elena—he was so angry that he had totally forgotten about Klaus' body. It wasn't like they could talk to the manager either because what were they going to ask him? _Hey, we left our casket here a few weeks ago. Have you seen it? There may have been smoke emanating from it, but don't worry about that. _Therefore, they were sneaking around.

"I don't get it…we've checked every single stall…" Bonnie muttered, scanning the wall as if a new unit would just magically appear before their eyes. "Who would have taken the casket?"

"I don't know…" Elena admitted with a puzzled expression.

"It would have to be someone who'd want Klaus dead…of course that narrows it down to _everyone_." Bonnie said more to herself than anyone.

Suddenly, flashes of the last ritual her blood had been used for appeared in her mind and a name came to her. "Esther."

Bonnie's eyes snapped to meet her best friend's, they stared at each other trying to process what that meant. "Do you think she's come back _again_?"

"I don't know, she's definitely a determined woman." Elena sighed, pinching her nose bridge trying to think like a psychotic mother who wanted to murder each one of her children. She looked down at the ground, knocking the toe of her boot against it in frustration. Why did she think that this was going to be easy?

Tatia watched with curious eyes as Klaus scurried around the house, doing this and that for who knew what. She couldn't fight her look of wonder on her face, despite everything that had happened she still didn't feel as if she were in any danger at all. She did know however that her friends were going to be worried sick about her. The last time any of them had seen her she was going off on some sort of bender, being dramatic and running around a strange town. Now she was nowhere to be seen.

Klaus went out of the room; it looked as though he would be a while. That's the way it seemed to Tatia. She waited a few minutes to be safe before she began to wring her wrists around in the tightly tied ropes. The rope began to make her wrists burn, rubbing into the flesh. She pursed her lips and kept going, loosening the tie more and more with each rotation.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tyler's voice called. Her head snapped up and she stared at him slightly embarrassed. She cleared her throat, not sure what to say to him. "I could smell the raw flesh from upstairs. You're trying to escape, aren't you?"

"Do you blame me?"

"Not at all actually." He said walking over to where he had thrown her a few hours ago. He took a seat right next to her, causing her heart to drop down into her butt. She gulped, nervous of his presence for the first time since arriving there. Not out of fear, but out of pure attraction. "If I thought I could compel you, I wouldn't need the ropes. But I know that your friends are smart enough to put you on vervain."

Tatia let out a breath and cast her eyes to the floor to nod in confirmation of his assumption. He nodded in return, studying his past love. She was radiant in every way a woman could be. Her hair hung over her opposite shoulder and trickled down like a dark waterfall. She looked up suddenly, upon feeling his gaze on her.

Their eyes met, connecting and electric current that had always seemed to run through the two of them. For no reason that she could fathom, she breath became suddenly very shallow. It was as if there wasn't enough oxygen to fill her lungs. Their gaze was magnetic, neither of them wavering from the other. Klaus could feel as his heart began to pound like a jack hammer in his chest. Not a single person had looked at him like that, knowing that it was indeed him inside of this body, in far too long. He'd forgotten how it felt to be loved by another person.

Had Rebekah been right in believing Tatia to still love him?

"How's the last millennium been, Nick?" She asked out of the blue, her voice sounding short of breath. He fought his urge to gasp at the sound of it; the effect his proximity seemed to have on her made him weak at the knees.

"Rough." He admitted with a tweaked smile that seemed to do nothing but hide the frown that stood behind it. "Yours?"

"Restful." She teased smiling at her joke for only a moment before it faded into the past. Her serious expression had returned and it made Klaus antsy. He didn't know what to do with himself as he noticed the way instinct had taken over them both.

Tatia's face was coming closer to his.

He shut his eyes lightly, bracing himself for the feeling of those sweet as butter lips to be wearing his. He felt her breath on his face, he sighed at the tickle it gave him.

Like a speeding train, Klaus was slammed in the chest, and thrown across the room. Tatia let out a startled squeal, trying to process what had just happened here. She'd almost kissed Klaus! When she looked around frantically for an explanation as to why he was now suddenly recovering from the unexpected blow. Her answer stood before her with his dark raven hair waving around his face in a very pleasant manner. His electric blue pools glared across the room at the coughing hybrid, his nose wrinkled to the side the way it always did whenever he was mad.

"Damon, what are you doing here?" She yelled, trying to snatch his attention away from the puppet that was Tyler.

"Yes, what are you doing here _Damon_!" Klaus snarled, zooming across the room and gripping the other male by his dark v-neck t-shirt. He slammed him against the far wall, his back to Tatia. All she could see was the painful look of struggled breath that came from her best friend's face. Klaus had moved his handle to Damon's neck, holding him only a few mere inches from the ground, choking him.

"Stop it!" She screeched at the hybrid, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn't kill him no matter what he'd done to her; she still cared about him and if Klaus killed her then there was no forgiving him. "Nicklaus! Please!"

"Go ahead, kill me. You'd be doing me, Elena, and my brother all a favor." He coughed the light beginning to slowly fade from his eyes as his face grew all the more ripe crimson.

This news disturbed Klaus. He wanted Damon to suffer, to beg for his life, to grovel at his feet. He pissed him off and he needed to pay one way or another. If he was playing this game then he'd have to attack him in the only other way that he could think of. He'd have to threaten a person that he loved. Elena was the first to immediately come to mind and if she were here he'd completely stake the girl. He'd still done absolutely nothing to punish her for transitioning into a vampire and ending the very bloodline he needed in order to make his hybrids. It would take too long to go after her, the point would resonate with Damon by the time he got to her.

He knew what he had to do.

"Your life may mean nothing to you but what about hers." Klaus seethed dropping Damon from the wall and speeding across the room, gripping Tatia from behind in a headlock.

It seemed as if life itself had been but on pause. All froze at what had just occurred. Tatia could feel Klaus' heart pounding into her back. She held her breath as she stood there, motionless. She knew that if she made a single sudden movement, Klaus might act out of instinct. She closed her eyes, trying to control her breathing. Her blood was racing through her veins at a faster rate than he'd ever felt before. His mind quickly caught up with what he'd just done but even though he wanted to step away from her and apologize but it was just too late for that.

"Apologize." He demanded, glaring at Damon.

"You wish." He replied folding his

"Apologize or…" Klaus bit into his wrist and shoved it into her mouth. The sickly sweet liquid trickled down her throat and no matter how much she fought, she had to swallow it because more just kept flooding in. "I'll kill her and you can try to explain to the witch why it is that yet another person has become a vampire."

She was finally let free to breath and she sucked in the breath, trying to keep calm in her situation. Damon hit an odd moment of déjà vu, remembering how he'd done something very similar to Elena and Stefan last year. He remembered that he was only bluffing but that didn't mean Klaus was. Klaus had the biggest balls out of any other vampire he'd ever met. He was willing to sacrifice his loved ones to get what he wanted.

"Now, let's not be too hasty here…" Damon settled in a warning tone, taking a few hesitant steps toward the two. Klaus gripped Tatia closer to his chest, winding up to snap her neck. "Do you really want to do that?"

Klaus paused to decide what it was exactly that he wanted to do.

"Klaus, I don't want to be a vampire…" Tatia trembled in a quivering voice. She knew that pleading for her life would do little for her now. Her gaze connected with Damon's as Klaus flicked his wrists.

"TATIA!" Damon shouted.

**Bum, bum, BUM! :OOO What's gunna happen to Tatia now? Review and guess what you think will happen now )) The first 3 people to guess will get a thee paragraph preview of the chapter before anyone else can see it. You must be a member I can message though. See yah all next time :D**


	16. Chapter 16

Damon rushed toward Tatia's figure laying on the ground across the room. The glass from the cabinet that Klaus had thrown her into had shattered, showering bits of glass all around her, he could visibly see that a few of the shards had dug into her skin. She was still breathing, that was a good sign, but she was unconscious. He wasn't sure if she'd hit her head hard enough to get a concussion.

"I spared her this time. Next time it will be Elena. Next time I won't spare anybody." Klaus said in his deadly serious tone. "Now get out of my house and take the dopple ganger with you. Her blood is getting on my new hard wood floors and they can be hard to clean." Klaus walked out of the room, leaving Damon with Tatia's limp body.

_I don't know what his plans are but I can promise you this: he will not kill her._

How could he have forgotten Rebekah's words? He should have called his bluff instead of giving him the reaction he'd wanted. Sure, all the guy did was chuck Tatia across the room into a glass cabinet; but he'd still freaked out as if he'd just killed her. Damn that hybrid asshole.

As he lifted her from the ground, a few pieces of glass fell from her hair and bouncing to the ground around his feet. How could he do this to the woman he claimed to love? He would never do this to Elena. Force her to transition when the only other option was death, yes. Chuck her across a room as if she did not matter to him, no. But that was just who Klaus was, that he could see plainly. No matter where you ranked with him, he was not afraid to make you collateral damage.

He sighed as he made his way out of the house, trying to figure out how he was going to explain this to Elena and Bonnie when they returned from their trip to find Klaus' body. He was supposed to keep his eye on her and he let this happen under his watch. He wasn't going to hear the end of this from the Bennet witch. He could already hear her rant about how he couldn't let anyone get hurt, it's what's right, blah, was blah, blah, I am a bad ass witch, blah, blah, blah, I can give you a killer migraine, blah, blah, blah. His eyes rolled just thinking about it.

But for some reason he couldn't shake it. The idea of harming Elena for his own personal agenda made his skin crawl. _HIM:_ he was Damon-the bad ass—Machiavelli- just barely on the good side- only a nudge from the dark side- Salvatore. If he found Klaus' actions daunting then there had to be a problem. Damon carefully laid Tatia's body down in the back seat of his car, taking a moment to just stare at her.

So this was the beauty that started it all.

He took a deep breath, raking his hand through his hair. How could such an innocent and beautiful person get herself tangled up in such an evil man? He could tell just by watching her stare up at him with her big doe eyes. Somewhere- she was praying—was still that man that she'd met and fell in love with all that time ago. He knew that he should probably grab him by the shoulders and shake her for being so foolish and naïve but, he couldn't. Only for the simple fact that he was once looked upon as being as awful as Klaus. Everyone hated him. Except Elena. She was willing to give him the chance that everyone else found her mental for giving. He couldn't stop her, but he'd have to ask her to take into consideration what he'd just done to her, and re-evaluate her feelings for this man.

Well, by the looks of things, he had a little while to plan out what he would say to her.

He hopped into the front seat and started the car. In his rear view mirror he could see a head of spikey mahogany hair staring at them out of his window. He had to squint in order to be sure he could see his expression correctly. He looked…upset. He looked just like he wanted to throw himself right out of that window. Ashamed. Guilty. Whatever you wanted to call it that was how he looked. Damon closed his eyes, took another deep breath, and forced his eyes forward in order to leave. He pulled down the drive, away from the mansion of the originals. All the while he could quiet the sentence replaying over and over again in his head.

_Been there Klaus, I understand._

**It's EXTREMELY SHORT, I know. But I felt like the ch. Should end there for some reason. I'll post again soon, promise **


	17. Chapter 17

She couldn't believe that she was stooping to this level. As far as her moral code of personal standards was considered, she was not disregarding it; she was straight up tearing it to shreds. The issue was that Bonnie was positive that it was the only way that they'd be able to get ahold of mama original.

Elena kept her eyes pointed out the window, staring at the landscape as it swam beneath their car. They were returning from their little adventure empty handed and she knew one thing for sure: Klaus was _not_ going to be satisfied by the fruits of their journey. That's why they kept their return on the absolute down-low. They didn't tell anyone that they were going to be coming home. As far as everyone was concerned, they were still two hours out of town looking for the body. As her house came into view an exasperated sigh emitted from her lips.

"Everything's going to be fine Elena. You really underestimate him, you know." Bonnie assured her as they stepped out of the car and walking into her house. Elena shot her best friend a look that told Bonnie that now was not the time to be giving her this talk. "Jeremy…" Her voice called out into the hallways of the house. Commotion was heard from above their heads and then the boyish look of hope popped out from the top of the stairs.

"Elena? Bonnie?" He returned rushing down the stairs to greet them both with hugs, his hands lingering a little too long on Bonnie's waist as they pulled away. "What are you guys doing home? Why didn't you guys call? Everyone thinks you're still—"

"We know Jer, Bonnie and I didn't exactly find what we were looking for…" Elena began, pressing her fingers to her temple. She wasn't able to wrap her head around the fact that she was about to intentionally involve her younger brother in this entire hybrid corpse hunt. This was the one thing she'd always promised herself, she'd _always _fight to keep him out of this. This wasn't the way he was supposed to be spending his childhood.

"What do you mean you didn't find it? Do you realize what Klaus will do if he finds out you guys still don't have his body?" He burst, looking from one of them to the other with his eyebrows furrowed in.

"We know, we know…" Bonnie interjected, trying to get a handle onto this situation.

"I can't believe you went all the way there for a couple of days and you come home early without a clue as to where his body is."

"But we think we know who does…"

The confusion on his face was as clear than ever. Why did everyone have to talk in riddles?

"We need your help, Jer." Elena announced, gesturing toward the living room.

V``````V

Over at the Salvatore boarding house, Tatia laid up in bed only just beginning to stir. As she made her way back to consciousness the very first thing she realized was that her head was pounding incredibly hard. She let out a small whimper of pain, pressing her palm to her forehead in an attempt to rid herself of the stabbing headache. She took a yawn in preparation of what she was about to do. Slowly she dragged her eyelids up to open her eyes.

As she stared up at the ceiling above her, she quickly formulated that she was in Damon's room, laying in Damon's bed.

How she had gotten there was a bit fuzzy in her mind and she almost began to wonder if yesterday as a whole was nothing but that of a dream. Klaus never showed up at Elena's home in the wee hours of the morning, Stefan never came to save her, she never overheard Damon tell Elijah that she meant nothing to him, Klaus did not kidnap her, she certainly did _not_ try to kiss him, and he didn't toss her around like some sort of raggedy Anne doll. Perhaps the entire ordeal had been nothing more than a figment of her imagination.

Then her head began another round of throbbing, forcing her to face the truth. Yesterday happened. It was real. Whether she liked it or not.

She picked herself out of bed and walked down the stairs, holding her head all the while. He was already sitting there, waiting for her on the couch, drinking in hand that he was sipping on, despite the fact that it was nine in the morning. He saluted her with his tumbler of scotch before downing the entire glass in one long swig. She smirked at him, shaking her head at his antics. She knew that she should have been furious with him for what she had said but she simply could not find the strength in her to hold a grudge against him.

"Good morning, Damon." She said to him as she passed through the room and out into the hallway that led toward the kitchen. She barely made into a shoe through the doorway before Damon was standing in front of her, blocking her way.

"You're not mad at me? How hard did you hit your head?" He slurred, grasping her shoulders and staring deep into her eyes, checking for any sign of concussion or memory loss. "Can you tell me your name?" The obvious sarcasm in his voice caused her eyes to roll up at him.

"Damon, stop it. I'm hungry."

"It's just as I feared. You're name's not Damon, its Tatia!"

If she had been standing closer to the wall she would have begun bashing her head against it.

"I was lying, you know…" He began suddenly, trying to decipher whether or not he was in the clear with Tatia. "To Elijah, I mean. I was sick of people getting on my back about our friendship. I just wanted them all to shut up."

"Nice apology." She retorted, vainly attempting to get around Damon's road block of a body.

"Look," She felt his hand grip onto her arm, forcing her to stay back and look him in the face. "I don't typically do this whole apology thing…but you're right. I need to apologize for my actions this time. I'm sorry, Tatia."

She stared begrudgingly up into his icy blue eyes. Even drunk the man knew how to talk himself out of anything. She scoffed before folding her arms across her chest and mumbling, "You're lucky your cute, Salvatore."

They smiled at one another for a few seconds before Damon let her walk by him to get her breakfast from the kitchen.

V``````V

Jeremy looked between the two girls with a face of shock and awe. Both of them had always been the two people who were continually refusing to include him in _any_ of the plans. He was always the _weak one_, the one who _had to be protected._ Now this was a second time in the past month Elena had come to him in search of help. Not that he was complaining.

"Esther…" Jeremy hummed, closing his eyes, requesting her presence in their living room. Being that this was a push-pull system he had to sit there meditating, begging her to come to him.

"What is young Gilbert?" An irritated, yet authoritative voice cooed into Jeremy's ear. He gasped as he opened his eyes, admittedly surprised that he had gotten her to push back.

"She's here…" He alerted the two living women in the room. "Sitting right next to me…"

Both of the girls perked up, looking at each other with a face of wonder and a knot of nerves tangled into their stomachs. The first step was convincing her to show up, now they had to coax her into telling them where Klaus' body was.

"If you called on me to ask me the whereabouts of my son's body, then I must disappoint you. I know not where it is." She snapped, correct in her suspicions of why they had called her there. Jeremy relayed the message to the girls with a sigh.

"She's lying." Bonnie stated. Jeremy watched as Ether's gaze snapped onto the Bennet witch's face in astonishment. "You heard me, I call her bluff. She knows where it is."

"Is that true?" Jeremy asked the ghost, glancing over at Bonnie with a determined look on his face. The look said _don't worry Bonnie, I got your back. I'll get it out of her somehow. I promise._

"Interesting…you have feelings for little miss Bennet over here." Esther mused, looking between the two. "I suppose you, better than a vampire. I'll make a deal with you. I'll tell you where I've hidden Nicklaus' body so long as you do me a favor in return…"

Elena watched with cautious eyes as her brother cat contently listening to what looked, to her, like thin air. Her brother nodded at whatever Esther just said.

"Deal" He uttered nodding his head at her. Elena's heart raced at the sound of that word. One syllable yet a very heavy word it was. What had Jeremy just done with consulting either of them? What had he just promised? Was she alright with him striking a deal with the devil? "She's gone now."

"What'd she say? What deal did you just make, Jer?" Elena burst, her blood beginning to accelerate in anticipation of what type of answer her brother might give her.

"She magically hid his body." He explained, looking adamantly between the two of them. Neither of them were going to like this. "She promised to bring it to us, so long as we destroy another disturbance in the balance of nature."

Elena looked lost. _Another disturbance in the balance of nature? What would that be? A vampire? Werewolf? Witch? Hybrid? What?_

Jeremy held his hand up so that they all could see the gaudy blue stone protruding from his finger.

"My ring."

**Welp, looks like we're getting closer to getting Klaus' body back, yeah? Can't wait to unveil what's up my sleeve! Please review! **


	18. Chapter 18

_Dear Diary, June 21__st__, 2012_

_It's strange. The full moon is in a few days and I'm beginning to feel odd. Things that typically piss me off ENFURIATE me entirely! I'm much more jumpy and sensitive to light. I've never experienced this type of a shift before. I know that I'm not typically a level headed person but my belligerence has been enhanced even more so in these past couple of days and I cannot truly find a resolution as to why._

_I know not why I feel as though I must connect this exaggeration in character to the full moon but that is the only thing I can figure be the blame. However, I can control my transformations so that I may become a wolf whenever I please; even in Tyler's body I should be able to do that._

_Perhaps it is from the added stress the return of my ex-lover Tatia that has burdened me. Yes, I have not brought her up in a passage for a couple hundred years. Talk about nostalgia, huh? It's true; the sassy vampire-loving-while-also-vampire-hating witch Bonnie has resurrected her. It's precisely something that she would do. I believed myself to had been over Tatia after the first five-hundred years of counter hybrid curse tracking. However, yesterday she leaned in to kiss me…and, AH! An emotion for each year I've lived my undead life rushed from the dark depths within me and was brought to the surface…_

_And now she most likely hates me. You see, I'm a fool. I took action without thought of the repercussions; another execution out of my own character. As I was holding my Tatia against me, I could not stop my body's reaction from her being so close. I doubt she'll forgive me for such a hasty action. I nearly turned her. The thoughts that were running through my own head frightened even me! I had to create as much distance as I possibly could between the two of us or I feared that I would have actually turned her._

_As much as I despise saying so, it was a good thing Damon showed up. I am the absolutely worst thing in the entire universe for Tatia and I am so selfish. I will easily allow her to fall into me, like a Venus fly trap; operating on instinct alone. I've knowledge that the dark hair, blue eyed scoundrel and she have become quite close; __**thick as thieves **__as we used to say back in my human life. Therefore I knew not only that it'd matter to him if I threatened Tatia, but also that she'd be left in safe and caring hands as I abandoned her body lying unconscious on the shard coated floor._

_Boy does that older Salvatore irk me._

_Of course, from what I had learned from my little excursion earlier this year with Stefan, Damon seems to irk everybody. Besides Elena of course._

_Speaking of which, I have yet to plan out her punishment for turning. It's interesting; Katerina has spent her entire existence dodging me. Yet, Elena is still here. She is not running from me like a coward. I must admit, I find that a very admirable trait. Of course, she could just be incredibly stupid too._

Klaus heard a creak at his door and when he looked up he was shocked at who he saw standing in his doorframe, awaiting permission to enter. He was still a vampire; she could have entered with or without it. Therefore she was either too scared or too polite to invade. Maybe a little bit of both. He studied her for a few seconds. Yes, there was an absence of the heavenly aroma of blood that used to flow from within her. There stood the girl he was quite literally just writing about.

"Elena." He acknowledged nodding in confirmation that it was okay to enter his bedroom.

"Klaus…" She returned in a much more feeble voice than his. She tip toed into his room, her eyes scanning over his possessions with astonishment.

"Is there a problem, love?" He inquired, arching his eyebrow at her refusing to stand in her presence. From the time he was raised in that was a sign of ultimate respect, something she did not have from him. She wouldn't notice if he did anyway. Men of this age rudely remain seated when a woman entered the room. It was something that took him a couple years to break the habit of it.

"It's just…your room, it's so…" She trailed her fingers over the book that he had left lying open, face down, on the edge of his desk, where he sat, staring at her with a smirk on his face.

"Normal?" He offered, shutting his journal and slipping it in its drawer where he kept it, locking it with his skeleton key.

"Yeah…" She admitted looking down at him uncomfortably shifting her weight back and forth between her left and right foot.

"It was incredibly brave of you to show up here, with the knowledge that I am seeking revenge for your transformation." Klaus spat at her, finally rising from his seat and taking a step closer to the new vampire/ex-dopple ganger. She cowered back slightly, but did not take a step away from him. She was incredibly brave, indeed. He leaned forward slightly, reaching for the book Elena had brushed. His held his ear near her face her ragged and terrified breath, that seeped through her mask of bravery, blew into his ears. He wrapped his fingers around the spine very delicately, leaned away from her, and snapped the book shut. "What do you want?"

"To make a deal with you." She said, tilting her head down ever-so-slightly in a very regal manner. Something about these Petrova's…they all just seemed to hold some sort of mystifying and powerful presence.

"What kind of deal? I don't typically do deals." He rattled, turning his back on her to place the book back on the shelf it had originally come from. In all honesty, it was pure luck she hadn't read the spine of that particular book. It was one of his oldest journals to date. He'd stayed up all night the night before reading a particular passage over and over. The one where he'd recorded his first, only, and last kiss with Tatia.

"Bonnie and I know where your body is." She announced, causing him to whirl around and look at her with surprise written across his features. That fast? They still had three days until he was going to maim the blonde human that had hit on his ex-lover. He had to admit, he was slightly disappointed. He'd actually been looking forward to killing him. "I propose that if we get it for you, then you spare my loved ones lives, as well as my own, in exchange."

Klaus took a deep breath, trying to keep his cool. "NO! You don't get to make that call! I'm threatening to kill your only loved one without a magical protection! You don't get to heckle me, demanding things that you wish to have!"

"Klaus! The game has changed!" She shouted back. Black veins began to sprout from under Klaus' eyes. Not a good sign for Elena. She had to calm him down somehow, or else he was going to rip her throat out. "The only way we can get it is if we destroy Jeremy's protective ring. We need it for the spell that will bring it to us. That leaves my baby brother unprotected and I cannot have a doubt in my mind that he is safe!"

Klaus narrowed his eyes at her. Of course this would happen. They have more leverage than they should. He should have never left this in their hands! He should have realized that they'd find a way to use it against him. He sighed and ran his hands through Tyler's hair. If he really thought about it, he didn't really lose anything from this deal except his leverage on Elena, Stefan, and Damon. He was sure that he could find something new to hold over them in time. After all, they did have an eternity now.

"Fine! You have my word! Just get my body back!" He snapped, griping the edge of his desk, the wood splintering under his grasp.

"Thank you!" She gushed, obviously relaxing slightly at his favorable answer.

"JUST GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" He raged, snapping the top off his desk and chucking at her frame. By the time it had hit the wall on the other side of her, she was gone.

"Really Nick?" Rebekah scoffed, peering into the room to see what was going on. "We have to get you _ANOTHER_ new desk?"

**Figured I'd try something new, a diary from Klaus! The show seems to have strayed away from the diary entry thing, which kind of sucks cause I thought it was neat way to begin and end an episode. Anyways, I'm giving a shout out to Slayerdiaries for being the **_**ONLY**_** person to have reviewed my last chapter! Thanks girl…or dude…person…yeah…**


	19. Chapter 19

She tossed and turned in her bed, somehow unable to allow herself to fall into sleep. Was it that she was afraid that Klaus wouldn't honor his word and kill her in her sleep? That's what she could tell people after complaining about how she was having insomnia. It was nothing more than a cover up excuse. The truth was that her mind had been occupied with other affairs, other _people_.

Elena huffed was she turned onto her side to stare at the analogue clock that sat on her night stand. According to the little hands it was 1:34 am. She could hear Tatia tossing and turning down the hall, she frequently suffered from nightmares, and on the other side of her bathroom she could hear Jeremy's even breathing; at least one of them had frequently calm sleeping cycles.

_You want what everybody wants…_

There his voice rang in her head so clear that she almost thought that he'd snuck into her room. She scoffed to herself, sitting up in her bed, and dragging herself to her vanity. She stared herself hard in the face, focusing on the way her messy hair fell in a shag over her shoulders. All she needed to do was get her mind off of Damon just long enough that she could finally go to sleep. Stefan was getting worried about the fact that her sleeping patterns had been all over the place since she became a vampire. The girl that was staring back at her looked vulnerable and sad. She thought she was finally passed being the sad girl. It was all Damon's fault.

_You want a love that consumes you…_

Her face became flushed from the coincidence of his statement. She'd told Matt that when she was around Damon it just consumed her before. It was just too much to take. What was worse? She remembered agreeing with Damon when he said this very thing to her a year ago. Her head began spinning from the memory and so she threw her hair up into a ponytail. The sweat on the back of her neck did little to cool her down. She took a deep breath and began fanning her face in vain.

She changed her strategy; jumping up from the little stool and rushing into her shared bathroom. She turned the knob on her sink and let the cool water run for a little bit before splashing her face with it. She was a vampire now, why did she have this sudden heat flash? Her eyes met her own in the mirror once more and she narrowed them at herself. What was the matter with her?

_You want passion…_

Her hands flew up to her sore eyes and she rubbed the dull irritating discomfort, wishing that she could just go to sleep and appease them. She had the sudden desire to keep moving. She couldn't stand still for the life of her. She began to pace back and forth across her bedroom floor, her speed slowly accelerating the longer she went. She ignored the old rational worry that she might wear a crevice in her floor and just kept moving, terrified of what stillness would bring for her.

An adventure…

She simply could not stay inside any longer. This house was beginning to feel more and more like a prison cell the longer that she stood inside it. She was beginning to feel claustrophobic, as if the white washed walls of her bedroom were about to collapse inwards and crush her. Left as nothing but a stain in the wood flooring; a blemish in what would have been the perfect house to buy from the lonely orphan boy with no family. The boy that was raised by vampires after the rest of his family died on him. She rushed out of the house without a word to anyone, the hassle they would all bring when they tried to stop her. No, she had to do this or she felt like she would just explode.

_And even a little danger…_

It felt as if the weight of the world was hanging limp on her shoulders and at times most of the weight would distribute all to one side, trying to tip her off balance. Then, once she would finally get the handle of it the weight would shift to the other side to send her reeling in the other direction. As she raced through the darkness, she had no idea where she was running, and for some reason she found that she liked it. Her body told her where to go, flowing on pure instinct; something Stefan had pushed her to fight ever since she awoke as what she was now.

"_So, what do you want?" _She had replied to him. It was odd thinking about this alternate first impression of Damon. She was in all honesty swept off her feet by the mysterious hottie that had mulled her future love endeavors over with her. She yearned to know more about him but what had sent her over the edge was the vivid memory she kept of the noise he made in response to that question.

_His eyes first narrowed slightly and then widened, taken off guard by the question. At first he just stared at her in what appeared to be total awe and while holding that intense stare he made a deep sound from his throat that sort of came out as a mixture of the word "um…" and "oh…"_

Her body stilled at the thought of it. One second she was moving at the speed of light and the next she was still as a statue. She ignored the spinning head it gave her. She was standing there, exactly where she had in her memory.

What was even more ironic was that Damon was lying in the road just as she had remembered it.

"Elena?" She heard his voice call to her in uncertainty. He'd had so many fantasies in the past that he couldn't be sure.

"Damon…" She replied in an uncomfortable voice. Could he sense that she had been thinking about him? Luckily it was too dark for him to see the way she'd blushed at being caught. "I…I-uh, couldn't sleep…"

"Join the club." He scoffed getting up from his place on the concrete and approaching her. Her breathing suddenly picked up for no reason whatsoever and she had to keep her face directed in a different way than right at him. She began to touch her face, rub the back of her neck, and tuck the extra hairs she'd missed when putting her hair up behind her ear; all of the things Damon knew she did when she was nervous.

But why was she nervous?

"Is something the matter, Elena?" He asked when he'd finally made it in a comfortable distance from her. She crossed her arms over her chest in a protective stance, almost as if she was afraid that he was going to attack her. His face twisted in confusion. "Seriously Elena, what's wrong?"

"I-I…" She trailed off, unable to go on. The silence that filled the air seemed to do a lap around Damon's throat and then tightened, strangling him. Why was she torturing him so?

"Yes…" He said, heart pounding. Was she finally going to say the four words that his imagination never even dared to generate in his dreams. The four words that would make everything that's ever happened to him okay. He just wanted to hear her say them to him.

_I love you, Damon._

"I…" Elena repeated again, still seemingly unable to speak.

_Come on Elena; just build up the courage to say it! I won't refuse you! We both know that!_ Damon wanted to shout to her, but he didn't want to startle her. He already knew how much emotional energy admitting it to herself had to take.

"W-wait…" Her typical tone of voice return and Damon's shoulders slightly slumped in defeat. "What were you expecting me to say exactly?" Elena shot, a snotty tone taking over. Damon wanted to bash his head off of the road once his ears picked up on this change in way of speaking. She was hiding from him again. "Were you expecting some sort of declaration…"

"Maybe I was!" He spat back at her, his impatience and temper quickly getting the best of him. "Would I be foolish to think that you'd say something like that me? You have _kissed_ me before, you know!"

"That was only to experiment my feelings for you!"

"It didn't stop you from shoving your tongue down my throat now did it!"

"Don't you DARE try to use that against me! Sometimes I wish I never had done it!"

Each dig they took at each other cut the other one deep but the blood simply streamed over their egos and then healed itself quickly, they were immortal beings that healed themselves after all.

"Why can't you just _say it_ already?" Damon countered, wanting so badly to just take Elena by the shoulders and shake the living day lights out of her! He'd never been this exhilarated from a fight before, simply because he wasn't mad. He wasn't in danger of going all vamp on her. He was simply frustrated and he felt hot.

"_BECAUSE I CAN'T!" _Elena screamed on the very top of her lungs.

Silence followed her battle cry; nothing but their heavy breathing and her own voice echoing into the trees behind Damon.

"If I say it out loud then it becomes true." She sighed, throwing her hands out in an act of surrender, letting them fall down and bounce against her legs. "If I admit it to you, or even myself then it's real and someone is going to get hurt." The salty tears began to well up in her eyes now, taunting the both of them. "I keep running from this but, it keeps on chasing me. It's slowly driving my INSANE!" Her hand flew up to her hair, her fingers raking into her pulled back roots and tearing at them. "But I won't say it."

Damon didn't know what to do with himself. He felt like he had just been pushed off the top of the empire state building, into an Olympic sized pool full of vervain. He swallowed down the tears, forcing himself to remain strong in front of her, but that couldn't numb the pain.

"I won't." Her voice whispered into the early-morning air.

Across the distance of the two feet that stood between them, something had just been severed. Damon felt the reality of the situation bare down on him. All the faith he had in his relationship he had formed from the ashes of Elena's life were nothing but false hope. She had truly chosen Stefan. _It'll always be Stefan._

He nodded, looking off in the distance in search of something—anything else to focus on. "Have a goodnight, Elena."

"Damon, wait…" She closed her eyes and shook her head. What was she doing? She opened her eyes and he was gone.

V''''''V

Tatia strolled down the stairs, shaking her bed head out. She'd spent the night at the grill with Damon last night. People in town probably thought that Elena and Damon were dating now because of it. In fact, it probably didn't look too good when Elena went out in public with Stefan now too. _Interesting…now Elena would be looked at as the town harlot…_

She stopped dead in the doorway of the living room. Why were everyone and their mother in Elena's house this morning? She looked over at the clock on the wall and saw that it was actually the middle of the afternoon. She'd just slept in extremely late. The whole gang turned and stared at her disheveled looking appearance, not sure what to say to her.

"You look like shit." Damon finally spoke up, causing everyone to turn their glares on him. Tatia splashed the flames out with laughter in return, the last thing she needed was for Damon to get scolded for cracking a wise remark. Not that he'd really care. He'd been hated for over a hundred years, why start now?

"Not to be rude but, what is everyone doing here?" She asked in an innocent voice, trying her hardest to keep from craning her neck above the group of people.

"We're getting Klaus' body back." Elijah announced, making room for her to stand next to him so that she wouldn't have to stand outside of the circle alone. "Come and join us, this is pretty important for you too."

Tatia froze…unsure as to what was happening around her. Something felt weird, off; almost as if she was going to be sick. She felt kind of dizzy, unstable.

"Are you alright?" Damon asked, looking between her and Bonnie with a worried expression contorted on his face. "Bonnie, what's happening?"

"It's the spell, I think since she's derived of magic this much power is making her woozy. You might want to get her out of here…" Bonnie replied answering with uncertainty in the validity of that statement but it was all they had to work off of and so Damon quickly came to Tatia's rescue. He quite literally swept her off of her feet and rushed out of the house with her dangling over his shoulder.

He set her in his car, scanning her face for any more sign of discomfort. All he found was the look of nausea. He prayed soulfully that she would not up chuck on the light leather upholstery of his mustang. He drove them both across town, the boarding house coming up quickly. Tatia rolled her eyes at his urgency, as if she were about to die if they didn't make it there quickly enough.

"Well, wasn't that dramatic." Tatia stated in a very forlorn voice. Damon's eyes left the road only so long as to shoot her a worried glance. Tatia shook her head at him and shooed his concern away with her hand. She'd hate for him to waste the time and energy to worry about her. "You know, my life _used_ to be quite boring before all this happened."

A smirk hit Damon's lips at her comment. "Somehow I find that impossible to believe." He looked over at her again, with much more good humor in his purpose. "You seem _destined_ for adventure."

Tatia smiled in return, turning to make some wise comment that's make Damon's eyes roll in mock-irritation but she paused when her eyes met his. A scarring depression hinted at the corners of his eyes. Something was wrong. "What happened?"

He didn't even ask her how she'd figured out that something was desperately wrong, she'd explained to him the past that how she could tell a person's true feelings through their eyes. Not a single person had ever been able to mask her out. He pulled the car into the boarding house drive and parked it without a word. He wasn't foolish enough to think that this was over however because he didn't get out of the car. He knew by now that he couldn't run from Tatia.

"Nothing…" He mumbled in finality, he was still going to make her play the charade. He wasn't going to give up without a fight after all, it wasn't in his nature to just simply open up to a person.

"Come on, Damon! You can tell me." She unbuckled herself from the seat so that she could sit to face him. He took a deep breath, his gaze locked on the steering wheel. Something big had gone down to make Damon this reluctant to open up.

"I…I just…I hate myself, okay?" He muttered, causing Tatia's eyebrows to shoot to the very top of her head. She remained silent in the hopes that he'd elaborate on his confession. "I wish that I was more like Stefan. More genuine, more compassionate, more caring…"

"Damon…"

"…more giving, more selfless, more responsible, more rational,"

"Damon!"

"…and better! He's just better than me! In every aspect! Why can't I be him? I've tried in the past and I just can't!"

"DAMON!" Tatia shouted above his frantic voice. Damon finally shut up, staring at her with a fierce look of self-loathing painted across his face. "I like you now…just the way you are…"

_I like you now…just the way you are…_

Elena had said that to him once, when he was in a haze of torture, and guilt. Pleasure had been implanted on his lips and waved over him slowly as he relished in the feeling she'd presented him on his death bed.

"I love you." Damon burst, reaching forward and crashing his lips on top of Tatia's.

**That's all I'm leaving you with for now. Review for the next chapter.**


	20. Chapter 20

Tatia froze for a second, her mind trying to fathom what exactly was happening.

_Damon just told me he loves me. Now he is kissing me._

Once this statement registered in her mind she began to wriggle and struggle against him in panic. Sensing this, Damon backs her up cornering her between her seat and the door. "Damon…stop it…no…don't…" She mumbled against his lips with a frenzied hope that'd he'd withdraw. As his lips began to move on top of hers, searching for a response, she realized that he wasn't planning on pulling back anytime soon. Trying to push him off of her would be futile, she already knew that, but she still tried. Her palms smacked against his chest, but they just bounced off with no effect whatsoever as she'd predicted.

She had to think fast. She was already unbuckled; she had done that before Damon had kissed her. She refused to give him any inclination that she was returning his advances as her right hand snaked down to the passenger side door handle. She curled her fingers around the lever slowly and carefully. If he suspected what she was doing then it would be pointless until Damon found his way back to his humanity on his own. This escape plan relied on the element of surprise alone. In one quick jolting movement she yanked the handle, throwing the door open, and using her other hand to smack Damon clear on the cheek. Backwards she tumbled, purposely toppling out of the car, and onto the ground.

As she sat up she shook her dizzy head, staring up into the car ready to flee if she had to.

Damon peered down at there with a look of shock and concern. His head was tilted slightly askew as he stared at her. "Tatia I…"

"No!" She shouted furtively hopping up from the ground, wiping herself off. "How DARE you do that! I will not let you turn me into the person you take your feelings out on! Elena turned you down I take it? That's _FINE_! Don't get me wrong, I am dearly sorry about that but you CANNOT try to transfer your feelings for her over onto me!" She jabbed her thumb into her chest, never breaking the intense eye contact between the two of them. "I may _LOOK_ like Elena but we both know that I am not her. Kissing me is not going to make you feel any better; it's not going to change anything. We both know that I do not love you in that way, nor do you love me if you're being completely honest with yourself." Her voice slowly calmed as she realized that she had Damon back. He wasn't stuck in his depressing destructive state that she'd heard so much about. He was honestly listening to her, picking up every word she was saying. "I suggest that you never try to kiss me _ever_ again. If you do, I'll tell Klaus." She said with a teasing smirk in his direction. She turned around and began to walk towards the house. I quickly throw over my shoulder, "And Klaus is by far more possessive than you are."

Damon growled at himself and threw his head down on the passenger seat and just remained there. She was two hundred percent right.

Elena was right.

Once he had something good going he did do things to purposely push people away. He had promised Elena he wouldn't do that anymore if that meant that she'd give him a chance. She couldn't find out about this then. He was sure Tatia wasn't going to be running to Elena to tell on him though. She just simply seemed like the type to keep secrets. It was part of what he liked about her.

She was interesting. Enticing.

She didn't seem mad at him for kissing her though. She was certainly odd for a girl of her time.

V``````V

Tyler's phone vibrated on Klaus' bed stand. He hadn't really touched it much since he it'd been revealed to him that the super natural creatures club had finally figured out that he wasn't Tyler Lockwood. No one had really messaged him because of it. So what was with the sudden text message? Klaus rolled his eyes at the irritation it brought him to have to get up from his place at his desk, reading over the familiar words he had to say about Tatia's kiss. But the curiosity had gotten to him and so he took his time walking over.

It wasn't a text message at all. It was a call. The screen read MOM.

Klaus smirked to himself as he picked it up and hit answer. "Yes?"

"TYLER!" The other end of the line burst, Mrs. Lockwood sounding slightly surprised that he'd picked up his phone. "W-w-where have you been?" Her voice was shaking.

Klaus had to admit that he found that slightly sweet. In a nauseating kind of way.

"Mom," The word sounded awkward coming from him. It was certainly odd for him to be calling this shallow excuse of a human being his mother. "I told you that I would be leaving town. I didn't specify where for a reason. I don't want the founders counsel to not only find me, but I don't want you to have anything that they want. Including my location."

"I…" She sighed, she sounded trampled on by his words and if it were his own mother he might have felt slightly guilty. "I know, Ty. I just…" She trailed off for a moment, the sound of a deep breath and muffled sob came from the ear piece. "…I just wanted to hear your voice."

Klaus didn't know what to say in counter to that. If she'd said something like that in person he'd probably just purse his lips at her and patted her on the shoulder. However he was on the phone. What would Tyler typically say to his mother if she said that to him? He took a deep breath and reminded himself that Tyler was a teenage boy. Best to not act noble and respectful.

"Look Mom, I understand that but any of the littlest connection with me could get us both caught. Please don't call me, unless I call you first."

"I'm sorry Tyler."

"As long as you don't call me again, then don't worry about it. Bye Mom."

"Tyler, I love-" Klaus hung up before she could finish.

That would get annoying.

Luckily he knew that he would be back in his old body soon enough. How soon he wasn't quite sure.

What he did know for sure was that the full moon was tonight. He could sense it. He'd been locking himself in his room on purpose. The smallest little things were setting him off and he knew that if he walked around the town then he'd black out and allow himself to be taken over by his darkest part of him; which he wouldn't mind. He was more worried about who would be around when he lost it.

Who meaning Tatia.

V````````V

"Did it work?" Elena asked, looking from face to face in the room scanning for any sort of confirmation that they had been successful. Everyone was doing the same as her. Bonnie didn't even look very sure. Had Esther conned them all?

**I'm not quite sure if I like this chapter very much. It's kind of filler to set up the next couple of chapters. Review and let me know if you guys are still enjoying this story.**


	21. Chapter 21

As she rushed through the house, trying to find a correct turn that would lead her into Damon's room. She thought she'd definitely earned the use of his luxurious deep tub that he told her that he used to use to unwind himself. She also believed that he deserved to be locked out of his own bed room after his performance in the car. She could hear his slow progression out of the car, his footsteps echoing behind her rushing form. Once he realized her plan of action, he'd be at her quicker than she could blink. One thing Damon hated more than anything, people trespassing on his ground and trying to conquer it as their own.

"Tatia…" He groaned as he stomped through the door in a miserable heap. "Really? I do not feel like playing this game right now."

He threw his leather jacket off to the side, falling over the top of one of the chairs in the main room.

Tatia ignored him as she kept moving, taking to the stairs like an entitled woman. With an unenthused eye roll Damon turned towards Tatia, beginning to take off after her. She had a decent head start; she was already at his door. He kicked it up a little higher, willing his feet to move even faster. Tatia sensed him behind her and slammed the door behind her, smiling at her childish game.

Damon's foot hit the door as it closed, causing the wood to shake back the other way.

"You act like your five sometimes, you know that?" Damon told the Elena look-a-like as she turned to face him with an annoyed glare.

"Don't act like you didn't find it exhilarating to see if you could beat me here, even with the lead I had." Tatia spat back at him with a teasing smile.

"You are something else, Tatia." He mumbled, taking to the bed as if she weren't standing right before him. "Can you just leave me alone? I've already been turned down by _two_ women tonight. Can't I just be left alone to sulk in my embarrassment?"

"Shut up, Damon." She finally countered. Damon sat up erect in his bed at her response. No one had ever dared say something like that to him when he was in one of these moods. He had to admit that it stung that she'd just kicked him while he was down like that, however it didn't surprise him. Tatia was a woman full of surprises. Including an indisputable amount of courage. "I know it seems as though tonight I'm just chop full of lectures but, I think you need to hear them. Damon, you don't need to sulk like a pathetic little puppy. You think that will get you anywhere? Keep your head up, it happens to all of us."

"Coming from the person who has the most powerful mystical creature of all time strung up over her."

"I'm not kidding Damon, Elena will respond the best if she thinks that she hasn't affected you at all."

Damon's ears perked at her words. He had never thought about that before. Playing it cool and collected. Acting as if he didn't mind that she'd rejected him. It was almost like some sort of twisted game of hard to get. He liked the idea of it. It was enticing, sitting like an open invitation before him. Flustering Elena for his own personal agenda, what an idea!

He frowned.

"But will that make me happy?" Damon questioned, his sapphire eyes sparkling up at her in a dead serious nature. Tatia shifted from one foot to another, trying to sum up some sort of answer to his rhetorical question. "Tatia, I keep forgetting how young you are. Though you are older than me, you have not lived as long and I have." She furrowed her brow, staring at him in a deep attempt to understand his sudden change in opinion over her proposal. "You…you don't do that to a person that you love. You don't play games, wear a mask of fake emotion, manipulate them to your whim in the possibility that they'll succumb to you. You shouldn't hide from the person you love, unless you enjoy to torture yourself. I know I'm calling dirtiest of kettles black…"

"If you know that then why do it to yourself? Why are you constantly allowing yourself to fall into that much torture?"

A silence hung in the room for a moment as Damon stared at the floor, analyzing his answer. Tatia waited patiently for his answer, keeping her attention squared in on him. A double heart to heart in one day was incredibly rare for him and she wasn't going to pass up this chance. Damon's eyes hesitantly wandered back up to meet Tatia's with such sorrow pouring out of them.

"I'd rather feel pain then feel nothing at all, I suppose."

Tatia took a deep breath and nodded at him, trying her best to understand him. It was sad. Why did everything with Damon seem to be so sad? His entire existence was tragic and accidental. She gave him a smile, deciding that it was high time to turn the tide of this conversation. She knew that he was never entirely comfortable with laying out the secret inner workings of his heart and mind out on the line like this but, this was what he needed. He needed a friend that would beat his bottled up emotions from inside him.

Tatia felt the phone in her pocket buzz against her thigh. She dug it out and stared down at the screen. Her eyes scanned over the words at first with eager abandon but as she made it to the end of the message, disappointment swelled in her gut.

"Did you get this text too?" She asked, her eyes not leaving the words glowing up at her.

"Probably, my phone is in my coat. Why, what's up?"

She faltered a sheepish smile, putting her phone away. "They've hit some sort of snag in the spell. Why don't you head back over to Elena's to help them trouble shoot."

"You sure? Are you going to be alright here by yourself?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me. I'm probably going to take advantage of your bath." She said, helping him up off the bed and nudging him towards the door. "We both know where you'd rather be right now."

He smiled at her and began to strut out of the room with his typical swagger in his step. As he made it to the door he checked over his shoulder to see if he still had Tatia's attention.

"Is this what it's like to have a sister?" He pondered.

"I don't know; I've always been an only child. I'm pretty sure you don't make declarations of love and then forcibly kiss your sister…"

"Shut up." He laughed turning and walking out of the boarding house.

She stood there in his spacious room, never feeling smaller. Her face flushed at the memory of the way Damon indirectly called her immature. _An embarrassment for an embarrassment, that seems fair._

She walked towards his bathroom, processing his wise words.

It came all at once, like a tsunami sized wave; she realized how foolish she'd been handling everything with Klaus. Why was she side stepping her feelings? It all became clear to her now. The way her and Nicklaus had done things ever since she woke up from her grave, they would throw each other curve balls at each other, watching with pain staking anticipation to see it the other would be able to hit it back.

It was all nothing but a huge game.

She was finished playing games.

She huffed out a dramatic sigh and took off in the same direction as Damon. Only she was headed elsewhere. She was going to go find Klaus and finally settle things between them once and for all.

**OMG! We're getting so close! :DDD The next couple of chapters are going to be the most exciting! (in my personal opinion anyways) And I'm going to torture you guys for it. I want at least 3 reviews :PP. Hehe here I am, being a jerk. Ok, ok, see you all next time **


	22. Chapter 22

The first place Tatia went in search of Klaus was his home. It only made sense for her to check there first. She knocked on the door politely, watching the rose garden Klaus has probably designed and Bekah probably planted. They were so beautiful, a deep crimson red, yet the vines they generated from protruded spikey thorns that could prick you if you were not careful enough. No one answered the door.

Tatia made a quick check up into the open night sky, deciding whether or not it was safe to just walk in. The sun had just sunk below the horizon when she had departed on her trek across town and down the forest surrounded road. It had taken her a good hour and a half to get there, making the time become around ten at night. The moon was slowly rising higher and higher up into the sky. She quickly came to the conclusion that it was dangerous it was to be standing outside, alone, and in the dark at this hour of night. It just simply was not the best idea she ever had. Therefore she took a deep breath and plunged the door open, which gave way with ease since it was unlocked. Was no one home? They surely wouldn't have left the door unlocked if they had left?

She took a couple careful steps into the main foyer, gazing around taking in the amazing grandeur of the estate. It still stuck her and this wasn't even her first time in the home. Next, she began to poke her head around, in search of any signs of life lurking in every room of the downstairs of the house. There was absolutely no one there. A worry struck her head automatically, worried that someone had somehow come up with a way to finally rid the world of the original family. Who knew? Maybe it was Bonnie and her other friends. She glanced at the large stair case with wonder, imagining what types of rooms made up the second story of the building. Which was Klaus' room? She'd never been in his room before, even prior to her death, due to means of propriety. Well, if no one was home…

She slowly made a steady pace up the stairs, feeling oddly like some sort of high class lady, ascending a grand staircase. She imagined that there was a whole party of people, particularly suitors to her heart, who remained planted at the floor gazing with hypnotic gazes as she walked away from them.

She shook herself out of it; she hadn't been that way since a time in a far off distant past. A different life.

She stumbled down the hallway, some veered off in different directions, more possibilities. She reluctantly peeked her head in each door, making a quick scan for people, and then carefully shutting the white doors behind her, listening for that reassuring _click_ that identified the door as completely shut. The last thing she wanted was for one of them realizing that someone had been nosing around in their rooms. Every room turned up shy of any people whatsoever.

Where had they gone?

She knew that Kol had not returned from wherever he was. Kol was just like that though, just another leave floating over the dried earth's crust, letting the wind take him where he needs to go. Who knew how long it would be until that method brought him back home again? It wouldn't surprise her in the slightest if Rebekah was at the bar, compelling herself free drinks. She seemed that type after everything Klaus had seemingly put her through. She wasn't sure on the specific details but she knew that Klaus had somehow kept her locked up and caged somehow for hundreds of years. This was Bekah's way of coping. Klaus was also one to constantly be out, networking, picking up connections that would possibly be useful to him in the future. What struck her the most was how Elijah was not home. Elijah had never been the party hard, get drunk to numb the pain type. He was honest with himself about who he was and his emotions so that he would not have to turn to alcohol as his siblings did. Where Elijah was concerned, alcohol was only drunk for the sheer pleasure or business of drinking. It didn't control him.

With a deep sigh she turned out of the last bedroom. No one was home.

As she turned to retrace her steps back to the door, her eye caught on the small hall closet door that remained closed tight at the very end of the hallway. It was only a closet, what would she find in it? A broom? She wanted to laugh at herself for even entertaining the idea that the closet could hold anything at all that would be of any use to her now. What else did she have to go on though? She took a deep breath and approached the door, shaking her head at herself for even humoring her wild imagination. She wandered down to the door, placing her hand on the cool, worn brass handle and slowly and with much caution turned it to allow herself access to the small walk-in closet. Once the doors had opened enough for her view to be clear and her eyes had adjusted so that she could see into the semi-darkness of the closet, she composed a rather astonished gasp.

This small hallway closet was not a closet at all, but a hidden stair way to an extra third floor.

She made little haste as she snuck her way up the stairs, hoping for her sake that whatever resided up these stairs would not endanger her in any way.

As she made it to the top of the stairs she realized with a start that the stairs did not lead to another labyrinth of hallways but to a single, though fairly large bedroom. It was neither the size nor the décor of the room that made her stumble back and grip the doorframe for balance. She was sure the modern battle fields had seen far less gruesome days than this room had. Books had been knocked off of the shelves, the bed spread that looked to had once been very nice with rich crimson color had been torn to shreds, a night stand near the bed had been knocked over, the lamp that had once remained on it shattered from the ceramic base to the glass of the light bulb, the chair that appeared to have gone to the desk against the near wall was flipped and splintered, and the contents of that desk were scattered across the floor, wiped off of the top of it in what she presumed to be a moment of passion.

She noticed that at her feet remained one of the many leather bound books that the resident of this room appeared to own. It was closed, yet by observing the pages from the outside one of them had appeared to be much more worn than the others; for it looked wrinkled and it stuck out slightly in comparison. With mild curiosity she let the book fall open in her hands, to that very page.

_Dear Diary, October 31__st__, 1012 AD_

_I feel as though my head has been submerged in water, yet the rest of my body remains above the murky heaviness. How is it possible to be confused in my current emotions? Such pain and sorrow has follow other emotions quite contradictory. Henrick is dead. And it's all my fault. _

_Unfortunately, that is not yet the worst of it. I've lied. I've told my family that his cause of death was something utterly not the truth at all. I let myself play the devil's advocate and told falsehood to hide my other sins. It seems my acts of evil are outnumbering my accts valor lately._

_As I have confided in these very pages before, I covet my brother's most exquisite lover. Tatia has been in my thoughts unceasingly ever since I first laid eyes upon her. I tried to hide it, as previous entries confess. However, something has happen. Something, I wish that I was not proud of, something that makes the whole world shift on its axis when I think of it. I wish there were enough emotions to express what has happened._

_Tatia has kissed me._

_And I do not regret to admit that I've kissed her back._

_I love her, most ardently and I have good suspicion that she returns these feelings. The violence of my feelings surprise my own thoughts, even though I know that I have a very passionate and brooding nature. As she leaned in to lay her lips atop my own, my heart raced so fast that I swear to the heavens above that I believed that it twas merely seconds from jumping out of my chest. As our lips touched, my hands caressed what little I felt entitled to allow my skin to make contact with. I now know why people write sonnets of such brilliant architecture and wording that seem impossible to compare to. Impossible to relate to if you ever have not been so in love. I feel as though I've seen the gate of heaven open before me, yet I have the pleasure to continue living before greeting this fair compulsory place of my future._

_I must find her. For I know for a fact that she is somewhere hiding. She was with me when we found Henrick's body. This is a bond we'll always share, the horror of first seeing this atrocity happen to so young, so innocent, and so undeserving a soul as to have been cut off from life so young._

_I feel as though I'll die without her by my side for the rest of eternity._

Tatia slammed the book shut, tears strolling freely down her cheeks as she'd read, and unable to read any further.

This was Klaus' room.

This was not the fact that had her so tied in knots. It was the fact that he had indeed loved her as equally as she had loved him, this was confirmation of it. So in love, that he declared in his own records that he could not live without her.

Yet, here he was a thousand years without her.

She was certain that she had to find him! Wherever he was, she had to figure out what had happened. What had stopped him from ending his life, what had happened to his colorful personality, what had happened to his room?

"Tatia…" A voice gasped in astonishment from behind her. Tatia whirled around, dropping the book to the floor where it had been before she'd picked it up. There Rebekah stood in the doorway, her hair a mess and her clothes disheveled.

"What's happened here?" She asked in a commanding voice that always seemed to make every person fall slave to her command. She was natural leader.

"I'm not sure…Klaus had gone mad!" She began, a look of terror washed over her features. Her eyes looked faraway, as she relived what had just happened behind her eyes. "He should have had control over it but, he didn't. As he began to transform he whimpered that he couldn't seem to stop it…"

"What?" Tatia inquired in a much more compassionate a tone. She took a step towards her friend and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "What are you trying to say?"

"The full moon is forcing Klaus to morph into his werewolf form." Her hallow voice said as she choked back her tears.

**Heyy everyone! I'll be going away for a week, with no internet most likely. But I'll write as many chapters as I can while I'm away and them post them all when I get back! Review!**


	23. Chapter 23

The wood.

That's the only other place that she could think to check. If it was true that he was turning into his werewolf form tonight, despite the fact that he should be able to control it, then that's where he should be. That's where she'd go if she were him that is.

So there she was, stumbling aimlessly though the forest, calling out his name in the hopes that at some point she'd get some sort of response. She kept moving however, not even stopping once to question whether or not this was a good idea. She could not let him go through this alone, she remembered being explained the transformation of a werewolf to be extremely pain staking and lonely. She was aware of the fact that he could rip her face off in the matter of a few seconds but in her pure foolishness she believed that if Klaus saw her in his werewolf form then he'd leave her be. She could not allow herself to be reasonable or rational at a time like this; so she hid behind what she already knew was an inexplicable lie. Their love could survive a simple shift of form.

She looked around at her surroundings, realizing suddenly that she was incredibly lost. She knew barely anything whatsoever about Mystic falls. She knew her way to the grill and her way to the Salvatore boarding house. The woodland structures of the area, not so much. She looked off into the distance, hoping for any sort of sign that she knew. Nothing seemed to pop out at her as she scanned the area. Taking a deep breath she continued to walk, deeper into the woods still, the dark chasing after her, impossible to shake under the covering the trees provided.

Something happened to catch her eye however, as she continued to stumble through the forest. It appeared to be some sort of underground tomb. As Tatia approached it she noticed the way the forest had allowed itself to grow over top of the stone structure. Vines and roots grew over and around the threshold of the cavern. Through it all however she could see the words _LOCKWOOD_ encrusted in the stone, right above the entrance. As she gazed at it in wonder, she heard something approaching.

She whipped around, turning her back on the fascinating discovery she'd just made. Her body tensed up as she recognized the noises the growing figure emitted. It was whimpers and whales of pain. Her eyes grew large as her eyes fought against the shadows for any identification of the person. As it came closer she noticed that the person's body was horribly disfigured. Its limbs were bent around in weird ways. The whimpering's continued and the more distinct they became, the more she could hear the snarls costumed with the howls of pain. Her jaw dropped.

It was Tyler.

_Meaning its Klaus._ Her mind echoed at her, trying to force her to do something other than standing there looking dumbfounded.

"Urrrrgh!" He cried out suddenly, collapsing to the ground, and writhing around. Leaves flew up around him as he flailed his arms and legs. She slowly tip-toed closer and closer to him; eyeing his tortured body. She was unsure whether or not she should kneel down next to him and comfort him or keep her distance. By now she was a little over three feet away from him and he suddenly noticed her figure looming above him. His eyes met hers and the anguish flashing out of them caused her to gasp in horror. She never wanted for him to feel this way, anyone really but especially not him. Without a second thought she dropped down next to him and took his face in hers, recognition resonated in his eyes as he stared up at her. Tears that she hadn't even realized she'd begun to spill rolled over her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry…" She whispered, watching the waves of pain wash over him. "How bad does it hurt? I-I've never seen this before…"

"Ever been tortured before?" He gasped, fighting to cling onto his humanity. The last thing he wanted to do was lose control around her.

"No, but I get the point…" She said with a hysterical smile. This was the least likely time to be smiling at him but she had to give him a reason to keep fighting. To keep pushing on. "I love you…"

Shock and confusion crinkle up over his features, only barely visible through the distorted pain. She couldn't take it any longer. She crashed her lips down onto his. Her gut plummeted into her feet upon contact. His lips remained cold and unmoving beneath hers. Sensing that there was something wrong, she pulled away with confusion of her own written across her face. Klaus was always so passionate, why was he suddenly so cold and conserved around her?

"Elena…I…" He began, but suddenly called out an agonizingly painful scream from deep within his throat. Tatia took in a breath, trying to analyze the situation and worry about the man lying on the forest floor beneath her. That cry quickly and smoothly transitioned into a growling barking noise. Tatia took a few more steps away from him, earnestly fighting the urge to curl up into a ball, and make everything go away. What was she thinking? That he still loved her, that if she chased after him tonight that everything would magically be okay, that with her love he'd be able to stop from becoming a wolf?

_Wait a second. _She thought furtively, once her mind snagged onto something she'd almost let slip from her mind. "Did you just call me Elena?"

But it was too late for him to answer her; he had been thrown over the edge, and was spiraling out of self-consciousness. He was fully transformed into his wolf state. He rose up onto his four muscular and chestnut brown legs and growled menacingly at her. She gulped and stared deep into the dog's eyes, searching frantically for some sort of indication that it was Klaus whose eyes she were looking in. But it all came up dry. These were the eyes of a stranger.

This was not Klaus.

"Tyler…" Tatia gasped, trying to catch her breath at her realization. Not only had she just kissed another man besides the one whom she loved, thus making a total fool of herself; but now she also was cowering before a vicious man-eating, vampire-hunting werewolf that was probably about to spring onto her and tear her throat out without another thought.

She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her racing heart, but to no avail as her mouth unhinged and a piercing scream rang out through the woods surrounding them. No one could hear her from their position so far from all things civil. This was now about to become a game of cat and mouse. Tatia turned quickly, checking over her shoulder only once with the knowledge that Tyler was bound to follow. She took off through the forest, sprinting for her life in a futile attempt at saving herself. Tyler was right at her heels, waiting for the right moment to pounce.

Her aroma filled his nose, awakening his wolf senses to his carnal instinct to hunt. She was nothing more than dinner. A stray doe aligned for the kill and nothing could stop him now. He reared back onto his hind legs, preparing to dive—mouth open and teeth bared—to take his first kill of the night. What he hadn't prepared for was the root that stuck up right behind his prey's foot.

Tatia watched the ground whirl up towards her head as she fell to the ground, scraping her palms while trying to brace her fall. This was it. She was going to die.

She would have been more afraid if she hadn't already died once before. The idea didn't scare her; it was the idea of being mauled by an animal that she wasn't too fond of.

Tyler landed down onto his front feet, refusing to kill this way. This way was not nearly as fun. However, he wasn't going to completely let the girl go either. His claw slashed across her chest, digging deep enough that he just barely scraped her heart.

Tatia choked on the blood that rose up suddenly in the back of her throat. She stared at the claws dug into her chest in horror. _You're okay, everything is going to be okay, there's no way that this is the end, you aren't going to die. _Her mind panicked, instinct forcing her into denial and trying to calm her down. She knew the truth. There was a zero percent chance that this was going to work out in her favor and she was going to die once more with the knowledge that she never got to let Klaus know that it was him. That he was the only man alive on this planet that she had ever wanted to be with for the rest of her life.

Out of nowhere, another wolf appeared.

Tatia's light was already fading so there wasn't much she could really discern from what she was looking at. Her vision kept fuzzing in and out and it made her stomach churn unpleasantly whenever she made an attempt to focus her attention on the animal that was charging at them.

From what she could tell, it was a large golden blonde wolf, with a fierce demeanor as it approached them. She yelped in pain as the blonde wolf tackled the mocha wolf to the ground, dismounted from his position over top of Tatia. The blonde wolf barked dominantly at the other and with a growl bashed the other wolf across its nose.

The brown wolf whined from impact of the shiny gold paw and scrambled back onto its feet. With one more glare over at the protective stance the blonde animal was making overtop of the fatally injured girl's body, Tyler turned and trotted off in the opposite direction, in search of another being to attack.

Tatia coughed on her own blood, staring up at the sky now, simply waiting for her spirit to take flight.

The blonde wolf slowly shrunk and curled up, his hair retracting and waving into curls upon the top of his head. His bones all quickly re-broke and re-positioned themselves so that he was human once more. Naked, but undeniably human. Unless you take into account the fact that he's a vampire. And a werewolf.

Without pausing he raced to Tatia's lifeless body.

"Tatia…_Oh, Tatia!" _A familiar voice cooed down at her as her vision clouded out. "My love, what has happened! How could I have let this happen!" The adorable voice roared, anger and self-loathing occupying his emotion. "No, no, no…you can't leave me! _NOT AGAIN!_" He whimpered down at the pale face of his one true love. How would he ever find another woman who would ever willing have him again? Tatia was one of a kind, not even the other dopple gangers of her didn't understand nor accept him. "I don't want you to leave me all alone again. The first time was too painful." He whispered.

Suddenly, an idea flickered up into his mind. It was something that he promised he'd never do to her again. The first time alone was far too risky. But this was life or death; and he simply was not accepting the latter. He bit deeply into his wrist and shoved it deeply into her mouth praying to God for the first time in a thousand years.

_Please Lord, I love her._

**I'm baaaack! Haha, and you thought you were finally going to get the declaration and kiss you've all been awating. Nope, not yet. I hope you liked it! Review.**


	24. Chapter 24

_Gasp._

Tatia's eyes slammed open like the shutters on a sunny window. There was a pressure against her chest that she seemed unable to fix, as she continued to suck in as much air as she could in each breath. Her limbs automatically tried to move, trying to bring her to her feet but something was restraining her. Her breathing increased as she began to panic. _What was happening?_ Her eyes searched frantically for an answer. Her eyes met with a set of earthy green eyes. She found her answer.

"Nicklaus…" She gasped between breaths, trying to piece together what was happening. She was laying in his lap…his _naked_ lap… Upon realizing this she jolted upright, forcing her eyes to look away from his body. She gulped, a deep blush rising in her cheeks. "What's happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure…one moment I was sitting in my room and the next I was in the Gilbert home, back in my body." He explained with a boyish smile on his face. Tatia found herself smiling in response before she even had the chance to stop herself. "Rebekah came and found me, told me that you'd run off to the woods to find me…"

She rolled her eyes at the information. You could never tell that girl a thing without worry that it would come babbling out of her lips. Not that it was a secret and she quickly supposed that she probably should be thanking her because if she hadn't told her brother where Tatia had run off to, she'd probably be dead at the present moment. She picked herself up off of the ground and began to brush the dirt and other forest rubble out of her hair, afraid to make direct eye contact with the currently elated Hybrid.

"I suppose I should be thanking you…" She sighed, her back still facing Klaus. She could feel his cauterizing gaze burning into her shoulders, his eyes like glowing embers under a fire. Sucking up her massive embarrassment, she turned to face him her eyes down trodden. "You saved my life, M' Lord." With full knowledge that he hadn't seen such a thing in a while, she dropped into a low and proper curtsey.

Unable to resist her urge—like a child told not to touch her mother's ceramic décor—she peeked up at Klaus trough her long dark eyelashes. She took it all in once again, for what could be counted as the five millionth time that she'd memorized his perfect features. His devilishly blonde curls, his beautiful evergreens, his perfectly shaped lips. There was no doubt in her mind that this was a man was sculpted from the hands of both God and Satan. He was too beautiful, yet too mysteriously dark. Just to speculate your gaze onto him, you felt that yearning from the shadows you try to keep secluded within you. Your mind would stray from your proper place at the altar of your religion, whether it be ever so slightly or deep with the twisting depths.

He looked in awe, nostalgia clear in his body language. He loved every second of the curtsey bestowed upon him, the fact that it was coming from Tatia only heightened his pleasure.

"Tatia…" He interjected earnestly searching for any form of eye contact to determine what was her temperament. There had to be an explanation behind her reckless decision to chase after him in the woods. "Please look at me…"

She struggled against her bashful judgment and rose from her curtsey, connecting her brown eyes with his; like a current, an electricity began to flow between them. It was as if their eye contact was charging the air around, powering up some unknown force. The blood in her body began to flow at a quicker rate, to his glorified notification; pulsating in his ears as an indicator that he was having some of reaction on her just by holding a stare with her. The hair's on her arm prickled up in reaction to their hypnotic trance.

"Yes…Sire…" She whispered, the strength of her voice rapidly decreasing to a raspy tone.

Not a word followed this inquiry as they continued their staring competition, neither of them daring to look away and break the circuit. It was becoming uncomfortable for her to stand so far from him, every instinct in her body begging for her to draw herself nearer. Klaus became aware of the flush of her cheeks, causing his mouth to turn to sand.

Tatia was the one to take the first step forward, daring to inch a little closer to this burning coal. His eyes dancing with passion, Klaus took off at a much faster pace to reach Tatia. He never liked another being in control and with her small nudge he was ready to swoop in for the kill. The fiery passion danced across his eyes at a tribal beat, twirling with astounding grace, and reaching out into her soul. That's the last detail she could recall before he was everywhere. She could nothing but him around her. His arms, his chest, his locks, his neck, but most importantly his lips were firmly embracing hers with passionate abandon.

Her head swam in pleasure, his heart gave the greatest lurch of his after-life.

It was all caressing touching, fiercely moving lips, and gracefully moving tongues. He tasted of spicy cinnamon and she of cool winter green; a sensation building between the two of them as they shared their reunion, all the passion and sexual tension pouring out into their kiss. Their natural instinct that went past reason and propriety was urging them to begin ripping each other's clothes off. However, their clothes remained firmly intact due to Tatia's proper upbringing and possible fear of intercourse due to her rape at a young age. Klaus's mouth left Tatia's, placing fevered kisses down her cheek and on her neck. He let out a savage growl at the feeling of her already heated skin smoldering under his tounge.

"I love you, Tatia." He murmured in her ear, all the seductive intrigue present in his voice. Tatia wanted nothing more than to just let him have her right there, on the forest floor.

"I love you too, my dear Niklaus." She replied, gasping for air. Which way was up? She couldn't keep herself oriented while his touch was on her.

Though they could have kept themselves as they were forever, eventually Klaus had to slow things down and pull away before he allowed them to get carried away. Tatia kept her eyes closed, relishing in the pleasure he'd just bestowed upon her.

"I've never stopped…I've loved you…my entire life…"

"As have I." She opened her eyes, the desired look of satisfaction in her eyes taking effect on Klaus. "Words cannot…cannot even begin…"

"Come, Love. Let us go home and catch up with one another."

Nodding her head in agreement they took off toward the Mikaelson manor, hand in hand.

Finally together.

**:D I know it's short but I think the content of the chapter makes up for it, yeah? Review!**


	25. Chapter 25

There Damon laid, staring up at his ceiling in a complete daze. Today's events were just far too much for his unkempt emotions to handle.

His whole existence seemed to be nothing but repeated heartbreak over and over on an endless loop. Of course, being that he was a vampire this heartbreak was only intensified by a billion. Typically that included the rage, searing hot tears, and the unavailing urge to kill people; yet right at the moment he was tranquil. He'd reached the point of no longer wanting to care, his body feeling heavy as it pressed down on his mattress. Was there even a point anymore?

It seemed to him that his life had become nothing more than being an overzealous body guard for Elena.

Maybe he just needed to get out of that town, take off and never come back. If he didn't, he would forever be stuck in the shadows of his brother's love life. With decision, he sat upright on his bed and reached for his shoes. That was it; he was going to flee Mystic Falls and refuse to return until the next century. By then Elena and Stefan would probably be married and had left town by fear of suspicion. It would be safe for him to come back then.

He'd leave a note for Stefan, informing him to the fact that he'd left town including his reasoning. Stefan would more than understand, he'd throw a party to celebrate his absence. In Damon's eyes, all he'd ever been was a nuisance to all who surrounded him. He'd have to include a stern warning to leave Elena in the dark about the fact that he was gone forever, by the time she'd have it figured out he should be in Europe anyway.

He would move to Italy. Or England. Perhaps he'd even stray from Europe and visit India for a decade or so.

He made his way to the door, preparing himself for the long journey he was about to spontaneously make. As he peered out of the doorway he spotted a length of raven black hair pouring over someone's back, who was faced towards the road.

"Elena…what are you doing out here?" He asked her, stepping outside and joining her as she perched on the porch alone. "You know that you never need to ask to come inside, mi casa es tu casa."

"I'm sitting outside because I wasn't sure if I was ready to go inside…"

Damon's brow crinkled at her answer as he tried to formulate her excuse before she had the chance to tell him herself. With a deep sigh he planted himself right next to Elena at her spot at his stoop. They sat in silence, both of them just staring straight down at the ground without a word or glance at the other. Elena was trying to word what she wanted to say and Damon was simply waiting patiently for her to tell him what was on her mind.

"You really irk me." Elena finally said, still not able to look Damon in the face even though he had turned his gaze onto her. "I picked Stefan. I was _so_ sure in my decision when I made it, I had no regrets. I knew you'd understand I knew you'd still be my friend." As the words fell from her mouth, she realized that she sounded vain and like she was taking Damon for granted but, it was the honest truth so maybe she was. "I know it sounds bad, but I'm trying to be totally honest. You snuck up on me, Damon."

Elena nodded, turning her eyes up to meet his.

"Those misplaced memories…they keep haunting me. I don't think that knowing them before that night would have changed anything but… I can't stop thinking about them. You have the most surprising personality, Damon. One that not everybody understands and not one that everyone necessarily likes but, if and when you give someone a chance to take a peek underneath the mask they see it."

"See what?"

"You. The real you." She nodded, searching his eyes for any sign of his hopes being riled up. Nothing but a look of bashful appreciation was glowing back at her. "When I'm with you—around you…" She stammers, trying her best to word herself carefully. "…it just…it consumes me." Damon let out an incredulous breath, trying his absolute hardest to restrain himself from hopping up and doing the happy dance. "Damon..."

The leading tone to her voice caused his heart to leap up into his throat.

"Yes…"

She took a deep breath, fighting her churning stomach long enough to finally speak the words she'd been contemplating for months.

"When Stefan left I swore to myself that I'd never feel the same way about anyone else ever again. My one driving goal was to get him back. Nothing could stop me and then this road block got in my way. You. I thought I could dodge it, I tried to find excuses to evade myself the truth." She took another deep breath. This was it. The moment of truth. "I guess what I'm trying to say here is that somewhere within all of this I fell in love with you."

_What is air?_ Damon questioned in his head as he tried to restrain his undying need to reach out and devour her sultry cranberry lips.

"What about Stefan? You still love him?"

"Yeah, but no matter what happened I would always have loved the other as well. I love you both but, in different ways." She turned her stare back down to her shoes, picking at her laces nervously. Her voice dropped into a whisper as she uttered her secret. "I came here today to break up with Stefan."

"And then what?"

Her eyes lifted at his question, a burning passion flickering out of them and taking Elena entirely by surprise.

"I don't know…"

"Do I even have the slimmest chance in winning you?"

Elena could feel tears stinging at her eyes as his question was processed. She gulped down the stone that had spontaneously generated in the back of her throat. How did he do this to her? It was like he had some sort of magic spell or addicting drug to him that just made her want to rip her hair out. "Do you still love me?"

"Of course I do, don't be ridiculous Elena. I'll love you until the day I die."

"Then you have more than a slim chance." She nodded, looking up across the porch; at the stars in the sky. Without explanation she rose from their spot and walked across the porch to the cobble stone rail and stared up at the twinkling lights, only vaguely aware of the fact that this was where Stefan and her had shared their first kiss. Checking out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Damon had remained at the door, just staring at her with a speculating gaze. She found herself dying to know the thoughts that were running through his head.

"Let's bring you home, Elena. It's late."

"What about Stefan?"

"You can talk to him in the morning."

She turned around and faced him, shocked by the fact that he was turning down an opportunity to kiss her. He was thinking of her before himself. He was acting like a mature adult, for once. She was disappointed. "Okay."

They got in Damon's car and drove across town to the Gilbert residence. The car ride was made in silence, the lustful uncomfortable type of silence that Elena had never truly experienced before. Damon pulled over, put his car in park, but kept his engine running. This made it undeniably clear to Elena that he had no intention of staying for a while and to be honest it stung her ego a little. She just told him she loves him and he's trying to get her away from him as quickly as he can? The first time she'd told Stefan that she loved him, they slept together. I guess she was just expecting the same thing here. It would be her first time as a vampire. She silently vowed to herself that she'd save that experience for Damon.

"As least walk me to my door." She pleaded with a flirty smile. Damon sighed and shook his head at her with a low chuckle in his throat. Sensing that this wasn't going her way, she placed her hand on top of one of Damon's causing a current of tingles shoot up her arm. They both gasped at the feeling of it. Was it the possibilities that the touch hinted?

"I shouldn't. There's no need to torture myself any further."

"Please, Damon." She begged, running her thumb over his knuckle causing both of their hearts to skip a beat. "Don't make me walk up there alone, I already feel an abandoning loneliness growing stronger inside of me every day. Don't make me be alone again tonight."

Not sure exactly how far _Don't make me be alone again tonight._ went, Damon put the car in park and turned off the ignition. Elena smiled like a little school girl that had just gotten what she wanted. Well of course, she technically had. They walk to the door, each step holding some sort of promise that made their hearts pound into their ears.

Once they got to her door, Damon could hardly contain himself but somehow he was able to utter the words, "Goodnight, Elena." In a stern voice before turning to leave.

"I already gave Stefan three different chances, Damon." She burst quickly, trying anything she could to prolong his presence. It worked, he froze in place and looked over his shoulder at her. "Now it's you're time, Damon. I want to give you a chance, not just shoot you down for Stefan just because that's what's comfortable. Because that's what's easy. I want to try difficult with you. I want to go on dates, adventures, spend nights with you, talk about every dark crevice of our souls, console each other through every hardship we face, and most importantly I want to fight with you until I'm red in the face. You challenge me. _I want you, Damon. I want all of you because of the simple fact that I love you, Damon."_

He soaked up every syllable, trying to discern whether or not he was dreaming. This just sounded too perfect to be true. He had not time for doubts though, not now. He was already bounding across the porch at her, like a hunter taking after his prey. It terrified Elena, but it made her feel electric and as their lips collided she'd never felt so alive.

Lips, tongues, hands all explored and all fused such pleasure that it all seemed to get jumbled up as Elena felt her skin heat up under his touch. She let out a groan of pleasure as he slammed her up against her door, pressing himself into her as he kissed her with no abandon. More, more, more is all she could grasp onto as a coherent thought. All she wanted was more and more of him.

And it looked like she would get just that as Damon snaked his hand around her waist and curled his fingers over the door knob, twisting it open and pushing both of them inside.

"Jeremy, where's Jeremy?" Damon murmured in between kisses, memories flashing of the way he had caught them making out like this the last time they'd kissed. The way it could have easily led to more had he not cock-blocked him by showing up with his judgy little face glaring at them.

"Not home, staying the night at Matt's." She replied, feeling relief spread over him as he shoved them both into the living room.

They both toppled to the floor, Damon's hands falling on each side of her head. She felt trapped, caged by his body, and it made her heart leap with excitement. He reached for the zipper to her jacket, pausing just long enough to look up into her eyes, in search of consent. Elena made an impatient sound as she ripped the jacket off of herself, reach up and kissing Damon's face. Her smooth hands slid down the back of his neck, over his shoulders, down his spine, and to the hem of his gray t-shirt. Damon assisted her as she drew it over his head and tossed it to the side.

"I love you…" She whispered in a low voice, causing everything to suddenly slow down. Damon's smoldering gaze held her own for a moment, as she gently pushed Damon over so that she was on top of him. Her fingers trailed over his bare chest, reminding her that—spare her jacket—she was still fully clothed. She paused as she made it to his waist, her fingers floating over the same spot that he had grazed when teaching her to kill a vampire. "_This is the way to a vampire's heart…"_

He gasped as she leaned down and began to plant soft kisses over that one spot and back up his chest to his face. He grabbed her hair and flipped them back around so that he was back on top.

"I love you so much…it's unreal." He muttered into her ear, sucking gently on her neck. She smiled and closed her eyes, in complete and total bliss. He finally began to un-button her blouse, revealing her lacy white bra to his hungry eyes. The look on his face startled yet pleased Elena entirely.

Yup, this was going to be a long night.

**Yes, yes, yes I AM still alive and the story is NOT finished yet! Sorry it took me so long to update, I've been pretty busy. To make it up to yah, here is some steamy Damon/Elena action. Don't worry, we're back to Klaus/Tatia next time. Review, pretty please!**


	26. Chapter 26

She just continued to stare as his face, so calm, so serene.

How did she end up with him? She couldn't really figure exactly, it's not that she found herself very lucky to have him; in fact it could be argued that she was unlucky to have fallen for the single most dangerous being of all time. But he loved her back, just as passionately if not more.

They had stayed up the entire night talking, only talking. Nothing more, nothing less and she felt as though she would sprout wings and fly out the window. She'd never felt so content in all of her life. This was definitely going into her favorite memories list. She could watch him sleep all morning, however she could see signs of his stirring—a twitch of the nose here and a tired moan there. His eyes fluttered open to reveal to her his woodland iris. His captivating eyes gazed out of her in a tired haze, for a moment he was disoriented and was franticly trying to figure out a way in which his parents—or worse _Elijah_—would not catch his beloved in his bed. He knew they had done nothing but what would the neighborhood think, especially considering her history and reputation.

"Good morning, Nicklaus." She mused in a soft voice.

As his brain dragged out of the smog of sleep he realized that he was now in a time where it was acceptable to have a woman in his bed. He smiled up at her beautiful face, a warm fuzziness spreading throughout his chest, such that he hadn't felt in such a long time. "Good morning, Love." He responded propping himself onto his elbows and planting an innocent yet firm kiss on Tatia's lips. He pulled away slowly, ragged breaths just barely seething out of them.

"Good morning, indeed!" She murmured onto his lips leaning down at deepen his kiss. His whole body setting alight, he hooked his arm around her waist to pull her on top of him. She smiled and let out a light laugh as she swung around before leaning back down to continue to kiss her boyfriend.

She'd never been so happy in all of her life.

V``````V

Bonnie heaved a deep sigh as she walked up to the door to the Mikaelson mansion. This was the part that she'd been dreading for the past couple of months. She wrapped her knuckles against the front door, her gut lurching as she watched Klaus open it with Tatia in tow behind him. She figured she'd be here.

"Morning Bonnie, what can I do yah for?" He asked in an uncharacteristically chipper voice. She looked deeply into his eyes and saw a boyish gleam of pure joy shine out of them. Tatia really did have a good effect on him, didn't she?

"I'm actually here to see Tatia…" She choked out, looking directly at her with a knowing look which was returned in a regal manner. She knew why she was here and she understood.

"What for?" Klaus interrupted their silent communication, the protective and hostile tone returning to his voice as he took another step between the two girls. He did not trust that Bennet girl as far as she could throw him.

"Nicklaus," Tatia placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, catching his attention with her tone of voice. It was full of compassion and understanding. Worse of all it held a sadness to it that froze his internal sun. "Bonnie and I have a deal, she's upheld her end and now I must uphold my own."

She took a step around him, completely ready to go, when she felt a death grip ring around her wrist. She froze and lifted her eyes to Klaus'. "You will be back later?"

"Of course." She replied with a meek smile, reaching up for a soft and tender kiss. "I love you, Nicklaus. Always have, always will."

"Why does it feel like we're saying goodbye?" He questioned, a lead brick dropping into his stomach at her words.

"Because we are. For now. I'll be back, I promise."

Another emotional kiss was shared between the two before she departed with Bonnie away from the estate in the wood. They made it to the end of Klaus' driveway—out of his hearing range due to the fact that he had a fairly long drive—when Bonnie turned to the original dopple ganger and said in a shocked tone of voice, "You just blatantly lied to his face."

She kept her eyes pointed forward as they walked, tears beginning to sear at the very crevices of her eyes.

"I know."

**Short, yes. Good, I sure hope so. Confusing, I hope not. Review, I endorse it.**


	27. Chapter 27

**Sorry it took me so long to update! I just wanted this to come out the best I could make it! ENJOY!**

The dark and damp cavern of the ex-vampire tomb twisted out before Tatia and Bonnie, tunnels of dipping rock loomed out in front of them, making them both look and feel so small. "So, Elena said that she would meet us where the tomb's force field used to be."

Tatia nodded and the two of them ventured out into the cavernous darkness, nerves bubbling up in the both of them. Everything that they had done this entire time had boiled down to this, the ending—the falling events as a result of their actions. As they crawled down the last tunnel before the last turn they looked over at one another, apologetic looks shimmering out of each other's eyes and connecting at the middle, creating a weaved understanding. Tatia nodded and was the first to break the gaze and trudge onward, turning the corner to find Elena standing there looking guilty.

"Hey Elena…what's the matter?" Tatia questioned, looking over her shoulder at the descending witch with a worried glance. The three of them walked a little further into the tomb, Bonnie looking especially determined. As she passed the only human in the cavern, Tatia could pick up on her incomprehensible whispering to herself. She shot her an interested look, before putting it to the back of her mind and facing Elena once again.

"Remember how you promised me to keep quiet about everything…" Elena mumbled, her voice quaking with her own guilty conscious. She said not another word, but looked over at one of the adjacent caverns and out of it came pouring everyone. Caroline first, hand-in-hand with Tyler, Stefan and Damon both looking extremely confused but also intrigued, Rebekah strolling in as if she didn't really care about anything, Elijah looking as though he was completely invested in what was happening, and finally came Klaus storming in with his typical domineering attitude.

"You told them?!" Tatia gasped her gazed panning from one side to the other in astonishment.

"Yes…no…well, kind of." She stammered.

"Klaus showed up at the house, fishing for information. Apparently Bonnie had taken Tatia from his home and he wanted to know why." Damon mused, his eyes burning into Tatia as if he was trying to scorch the answer out of her. "None of us knew, spare…" He trailed off glancing at Elena.

"I told them that we had to awaken Katherine…"

The other two rolled their eyes; they wanted this to go over smooth and easy with no opposition.

"You've got Katerina?" Elijah questioned, his voice sounding genuinely intrigued by this piece of information.

Bonnie shot them all at menacing look before disappearing in the tomb, only to return with a floating body that looked the exact replica of Elena and Tatia. It was Katherine. Her skin shone a silvery-blue with black flakey veins popping out of all of her skin.

"You've staked her…" Stefan choked, sounding mortified by the sight.

"No, but close…" Bonnie said, looking between the triplet group of girls—all ironically come back from the dead. "In order to give life to Tatia we had to take the life from another dopple ganger. Now that her purpose has been filled, the balance of nature has to be restored."

A gasp resounded from Elijah, as he weaved everything she was saying together. "You're going to put her back to death…"

"_WHAT?!"_ Klaus snarled, an incredible anger overtaking his entire manner. All composure and aura of evil so severe that he seemed to calm had vanished. The veins sprung from under his eyes almost automatically. "_YOU'RE GOING TO MURDER AN INNOCENT GIRL!"_

"No!" Tatia interjected, her face red from frustration. All went silent as she stole everyone's attention from Klaus' temper tantrum. "She's going to let lay rest what _should_ be laid to rest! I was already dead Nicklaus, I'm not entirely human. Not so human either, I created a race of monster that was never meant for this planet. Don't you understand? Every life lost, every death by vampire in the entire history of the planet has been because of me. _Me!_ I deserve death."

Damon couldn't believe what he was hearing. His best friend was not only about to be killed on him, but she honestly believed that she deserved it! He stared in awe at the furious hybrid master that stood near him in the cave; never did he think that he would do this. He sided with him. Enough was enough; neither he nor Klaus would allow this to happen. Both of them cared far too much for Tatia to allow Bonnie to do this to her. With a glance to each other, silently communicating to one another, they sprinted forward at vampire speeds to snatch Tatia up and make a run for it.

They were halfway across the cave when Damon and Klaus both smacked against thin air and found themselves pounding their fists—entirely thrown—on invisible forced field. Desperation was beginning to set in as they tried to break through the powerful wall.

"What is this?!" Klaus snapped, fighting to regain some sense of civility.

"I had to prepare in case something like this would happen. Your side of the cavern is a vampire tomb."

Elena and Tatia both stared impressed with her forethought and back-up planning.

"When I get my hands on you, I swear witch!" Klaus cursed, kicking the barrier in frustration.

"Is that a threat?" She laughed, crossing her arms across her chest with indignation.

"I don't threaten sweetheart." He returned his scary composure returning like switched on a light. "That's a promise."

She shook her head at him, the small amount fear his "promise" had planted tucked into the back of her mind.

"Are you ready, Tatia?" She asked, reaching out and taking her hand with a comforting smile.

"Yes…" She sighed, trying her very hardest not to be afraid.

"What are you gunna do?" Tyler asked, completely in the dark for the past few weeks. He just woke up, as if from a deep sleep, on the forest floor; naked, shaking, and tired. To be let back in the loop was a comforting thing for him.

"Well, Tatia was resurrected using both Elena's and Katherine's blood. All I have to do is reverse that; giving Elena half her blood and Katherine the other." Bonnie explained, pulling the same knife—that had killed Tatia the very first time and had ignited her body back into life—out of her pocket. "Katherine's body is in the same mummified condition it would have been in had she been without blood for a century, without the pain. Therefore—just like a mummified vampire—if we give her blood Tatia's she'll come back to life."

Klaus was on the verge of hysteria, annoyed with the fact that only he and the older Salvatore brother seemed to be upset with what was happening. Caroline—who he normally looked to for empathy—looked sad, but not as upset as he'd hoped. Tyler looked confused; what else would he have expected from him. Stefan looked to be conflicted; he didn't like the fact that they had to kill her but, he understood that it had to be done. Rebekah continued her façade of apathy but her eyes gave way to her tortured agony. Finally, his brother looked on as if he were watching a movie; his intellectual nature masking whatever he was experiencing entirely. He didn't bother looking over to Damon, he knew that he'd only be looking at a mirror image of himself.

Bonnie began the ritual in silence, muttering more of her gibberish under her breath. Pausing only for a moment to look Tatia in the eyes, she pressed the purple stone knife to her soft flesh of her wrist and watched as it gave way to the red liquid inside of her.

"Elena, you first. I'll tell you when to stop." She instructed, offering the bleeding limb to her.

Elena took a deep breath letting her mouth make contact with the painted crimson skin. Tatia let out a gasp as Elena began to suck the blood out of her veins. The foreign sensation made her feel incredibly uncomfortable, the irritation started at the cut and slowly spread to her fingertips and up her arm. Before she could determine what to do the dull ache became a numbness, which she welcomed with a sound of relief. Her head began to swim as she stood by Elena, watching her feed. She let her eyes waver to the group congregated on the other side of the tomb. There appeared to be tears and looks of grief but, what caught her attention the most was the sight of Klaus relentlessly pressing himself against the invisible barricade between them. He was screaming, she could tell by watching his face but she was beyond hearing capability. She gulped as her vision began to fuzz in and out.

The fear was beginning to set in. She realized with a start that she didn't remember anything about what had happened after she'd died the first time. She didn't remember if there was peace, heaven, hell, or black nothingness. She'd been alive for too long. Those memories had been wiped from her memory. She was terrified of death suddenly but she wouldn't show it. She'd remain strong for him. This was too painful for him already; it'd only be worse if he thought she was suffering.

She suddenly felt her knees buckle and she watched as the floor suddenly swung vertical to her head. She didn't feel the impact of her landing but Klaus dropped to his knees at the sight of it. She kept her eyes connected with his, even at the edge of death the electricity was still there. She could just barely feel Katherine's fangs penetrate the skin on her neck but there was no pain associated with it. She wasn't sure if that was because it did not hurt any longer or if her entire body was just too weak to register. She could see black specks dancing across her line of sight.

"I love you, Nicklaus." She choked before everything faded into blackness.

She was dead.

**IMPORTANT! READ: This is NOT the last chapter. I have one more falling action chapter. What do you guys think? Please review!**


	28. Chapter 28

One by one, the gang slowly began to filter out of the tomb with their heads hung low. The number of people who were dying around them was substantially climbing. The town was dropping like flies. That wasn't the reason for their grief however. Tatia had become more than a pawn in luring Klaus into their command, she'd been a friend. Like the wind—she was gone just as soon as she was there.

"Give me your word you will not harm the girl, Klaus." Elijah bargained with his brother, knowing full well that Bonnie had become the headliner to his hit list, with the death of Tatia being at her hands. Klaus kept his eyes glued to the lifeless corpse laid across the other side of the invisible guard. He had just barely heard his younger brother's plea as he stared at the shell of Tatia. "Klaus, your word!"

"Whatever." He replied emotionlessly, too far into his own sorrow to even care. "Just get out, all of you."

Elijah nodded to Bonnie, confirming her safety. Everyone passed him on his knees like blurred passing objects, faceless beings that moved around him like strangers. As they continued to make their way out, Klaus crawled his way over to her body. Her pallid face drooped to the side, a few of her long raven waves had fallen, cast across her cheeks. With an emotional sigh, he guided the hair away from her face. He took a moment to just stare at her blank expression; his mind's eye reminding him what she'd looked like when she was still alive. The flush in her cheeks as he'd kissed her caused his heart to skip a beat. The tears were beginning to fight against his eyes but he could not cry!

He could not cry because, though everyone else had already left, Damon was still standing against the bend in the cave, watching him with an empathetic gaze. Tears of his own were irritating his icy blur irises, sniffling, and rubbing of his eyes every now and then, holding them prisoner.

"What is it, Salvatore?!" He snapped, glaring over his shoulder at him; his vengeful anger flaring up belated before him. "Leave!"

"Now, Klaus we both know that I can't do that." He mused scoffing and shifting his body weight smugly.

"Because you've got some creepy fetish for my girl?"

"No, because you've got some creepy fetish for the dead bodies of your loved ones." He snapped back, the pain from Tatia's death fogging his reason. "It's called being her friend, and though that may be a foreign concept to you, that's what I was to her! Her loyal, unconditional, _friend._" As the words he spoke resonated with his emotions, he could feel tears pooling at the corners of his eyes. "She was my best friend, the only woman that I can say I loved as if she were my own sister. So don't sit there collapsed on your knees next to her like you were the only person in the world who loved her because you weren't and you're not."

With all of this building tension, they knew that it was going to be a rough night.

"Whatever, let's just get her buried and be done with it." Klaus droned rubbing his hand over the bloodshot eyes that he was sporting. He was kicking himself, shutting out the rest of the world to his emotions. He'd spent so much time with everything turned off that he'd forgotten the reason that he'd done so in the first place. It was a mistake that he'd made multiple times throughout the centuries. Whenever he turned them back on, he'd have a couple of euphorically happy days and then the world would blind side him with something terrible.

But this was worse than terrible. This was unbearable.

V```````V

Stefan took Elena's hand and led her up the steps with careful precision. Elena could tell that something was wrong, he was acting off. Quiet. He could use the excuse of Tatia's death all he liked but Elena knew that he and Tatia were never that close. The only thing that she could think of was that he knew.

He knew that she was a lying, cheating, whore. She searched his face for any recognition of scorn. She would have checked for sorrow too but he always had a look of sorrow in his eyes. The only time that he didn't was when he was on the human stuff. That fact just added more onto her piling list of things she should be feeling guilty over.

"Stefan, are you going to tell me what's wrong or are we going to keep playing this charade that everything's fine?" Elena finally forced the words out of her mouth as Stefan reached for the door knob. He paused as his fingers wrapped around the handle, the way a deer froze in fear when a car was speeding straight at it. As she approached him, he looked unconvinced that he should say anything to her. She placed both of her hands on either side of his face, forcing their eyes to connect. "Tell me the truth Stefan, please."

He had to look down, take a deep breath, and brace himself for what he was about to say to her because he was taken off guard by it just as much as she would.

"Tonight…when I saw Katherine laying there, looking like she'd been staked, dead…it just…I don't know…it bothered me way more than I thought it would." As he spoke, Elena's eyes went big in wonder. She'd always had a premonition that there was something deep under the surface that he was hiding. That he still had a thing for Katherine and it turned out that she was right. "I can't explain it and please don't freak out about it Elena. It just hit me like a lightning bullet when I was standing there, trapped, and unable to help her…"

"After everything she's done…you still wanted to save her…" She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"She would have done the same for me."

"Yeah Stefan, because she still loves you. Does that mean you still love her?!" Elena snapped, trying her best to not be a hypocrite but it just hurt too much to be rational and fair about addressing it. Stefan opened his mouth to answer but nothing came out but an exasperated exhale. Elena shook her head up at him, staring in disbelief. "Wrong answer Stefan." She whispered, her voice barely a tremble as she retracted her hands from him and stepped back from him, making way for her porch steps. "I think you should go."

"Are…are we…" Stefan stammered, having to clear his throat in order to emit those searing hot words that he never wanted to say nor hear. "We're breaking up, aren't we Elena?"

"Neither of us deserve to be in a relationship where we both are in love with another also."

He dropped his head and nodded, trying to keep the tears from flowing. When he looked back up, he could see that they were already streaming over Elena's cheeks.

"But, I love you…" He pleaded, his last attempt to persuade her back into his arms.

"I love you too, Stefan." She sighed, in a very forlorn type of way that kind of sounded like a goodbye to him.

"I'm so sorry." He said, his voice barely above a whisper. Elena said that she knew and he turned his back from her, know that his heart now had to do the same. "You're picking Damon, aren't you?" He said, frozen where he stood, without looking back at her. The silence that followed his inquiry gave him all the answer that he needed. "Goodnight, Elena."

"Goodnight, Stefan." She choked, racing inside because she couldn't hold herself together any longer. She unfurled right as the door closed.

She knew that this was going to be a rough night.

V``````V

The pile of soil at Damon's feet was slowly rising, Klaus continued to scoop it out of the ground. What was unusual was the speed he was working at, it was a slow human pace. As if he wanted to drag this out as long as he possibly could. Truth be told, he was trying to put off having to drop her in and toss all of the dirt back on top of her. That would truly be the hardest part of this. All was dead silent—not pun intended.

Being as the two men were not even close to being friends, there was no conversation. Only direction from one or the other every now and then.

Klaus found himself exhausted to the bone for the first time in quite a while. But this task had to be done and more importantly it had to be done by him.

It would make sense, then that both Damon and Klaus jumped when the presumed corpse that lay at the edge of the ditch, waiting for full burial, made a choking gasp noise and bolted erect upright.

**Muahahaa! Sorry for the wait (I feel like I'm saying that for every post these days.) What do you think of my twist? Still not done. Probably one more chapter left. Review if you so wish. (Which I so wish that you do!)**


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N: I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure this is gunna be curtain's for this fanfic! I'd like to just thank every single one of you readers who put up with me throughout this entire story! I hope you enjoyed it! I'm just gunna shut up now so you don't have to read my babbling, so without further adu I present to you lovely TVD fangirl/guy's the finale to "The Original Dopple Ganger."**

"I just don't understand…" Tyler muttered as he sat across from Caroline in the Mystic Diner. He decided that the blonde vampire needed a little pick-me-up after watching Tatia's death and so he decided to treat her to Mystic's famous cappuccino's that Caroline absolutely loved. He could recall her even saying once that if she were offered a cup of Mystic's cappuccino and a cup of blood she'd gladly take the coffee. He didn't quite understand it, but he respected it and so there they were sipping on the hot drink together trying to warm up the cold iciness that witnessing death had instilled.

Carolyn licked the whip cream off her top lip as she peered up at Tyler over her large navy coffee mug that she was cradling. She was barely listening to him, just staring in awe that she finally had him back. It was an odd displaced feeling but, she'd be lying if she said that she didn't welcome the return of her loved one. As he took a pause in his speech she nodded with a vague idea of what he was going to say.

"When Klaus turned me into a hybrid he promised me that I'd never have to turn again unless I wanted to…yet tonight when I woke up—it felt like I was waking up from a deep sleep—I was already beginning transformation!" Tyler ranted, his hands moving across the table. Caroline watched it with a small smile, he talked with his hands, always had. That was one thing that she could definitely discern between the real Tyler and the Klaus inhibited Tyler. Though Tyler spoke with his hands, Klaus spoke with his eyes. She'd choose Tyler's dramatic hand gestures over that searing stare, that would make her slightly uncomfortable, any day. "Bonnie said that it was because when she brought the original dopple ganger—"

"Her name was Tatia, Tyler!" Caroline interjected irritably, only slightly realizing that Tyler never really knew her and she shouldn't be angry with him for not feeling any remorse for her death.

"Sorry—when she brought _Tatia_ back to life that it messed with the hybrid curse. However, why didn't it touch the vampires? She _was_ the one that created them, right? So, why only hybrids? Why not vampires too?"

"I haven't a clue." Caroline responded resting her half-empty cup on the table they were talking across. She diverted her eyes to the steaming, foamy liquid as she hesitantly spoke what had been on her mind for the past couple of weeks. "He's not all bad, you know…"

"Who? Klaus?" He choked, surprised that those words just came out of his girlfriend's mouth. He's tried to convince them all of that when he first converted him into a hybrid and none of them would listen to him and now that he had done everything in his power to oppose the man, suddenly Caroline saw something redeemable within him. It was exhausting to try and keep up with her.

She nodded at him, glancing up at him for a moment before explaining. "He had Tatia for a month, Tyler. He knew who she was for a month. He didn't even try to use her in the sun and moon ritual, steal her blood, nothing. He really truly loved her."

"Would it have even worked? He was in my body, not his own…"

"I don't know…either way, it appears to me like the thought never even crossed his mind."

Tyler's gaze as Caroline narrowed slightly as he analyzed her reaction to talking about his sire. "Is there something that you're not telling me, Care?"

She shook her head, an innocent look cascading over her features. It may have been a lie but it was one that they could evade because, based on Klaus' reaction to Tatia's death, he wasn't going to be chasing after anyone in that way in a long time. They would let this one go because it was this one that could rip them apart forever and for the both of them, forever would be a long time.

V``````V

He blinked once. Twice. Three times. Yet nothing was changing. She was still sitting there, clutching her chest trying to catch her breath. The panicked look in her eyes as they shot open was starting to fade as she got her bearings about her.

"T-tatia?" He questioned, very slowly climbing out of the ditch he'd been digging to approach the extremely confused looking girl that was darting her eyes around in astoundment. The girl turned and faced him, proof that she could hear and respond to him. As he reached out to touch her face she lifted her small dainty hand and met it half way, lacing their fingers together. He could feel that porcelain skin under his calloused hands. He could touch her. She was real. A single tear escaped from his eye and trickled down his cheek, causing a meek smile to form on the woman's face.

"How is this possible? She was dead! We watched it happen! We checked her pulse and dragged her body here!" Damon burst, his hand flying up onto his black raven waves and locking onto them.

"It was me…" Klaus muttered, his eyes refusing to stray from her face. He was afraid that if he let her out of his sight for even a moment he'd look back and she'd be a lifeless corpse once more. "When Tyler attacked her, I gave her some of my blood to heal her. When Bonnie sacrificed her I thought the magic would override the blood but apparently not. Nature took its course…"

"So…does that mean that I….I'm…" She stammered, speaking her first words since death.

"In transition." Damon finished, eyeing the spectacle with a mix of joy, relief, and repulsion. He was joyous that his best friend was still alive, relieved that this meant Klaus would have the fight to cling to the edge—and not break out on a serial feeding rampage—for the sake of Tatia, and repulsion because Tatia was the last person he wanted to see a vampire. First Caroline, then Tyler, ultimately Elena, and now her? Where would it stop? Where would the boundary lines lay? "Are you planning to go through with it?"

His question caused Klaus' ears to perk. Once she had awoken, he hadn't considered the idea that she might not wish to complete the transition. This provoking thought caused an unpleasant lurch to his stomach and a rapid pace to his heart.

"Don't be ridiculous! Of course she is!" Klaus snapped over his shoulder over at him. Taking Tatia by both of his hands and lifting her up. Tatia opened her mouth to say something but Klaus didn't leave her any time to respond. He took off, dragging her along.

She wanted to speak up, but every time that she tried to call out his name it would get lost into the air that was passed behind them. He wouldn't listen. He just wouldn't listen. She wasn't sure if it was because he was unaware of the fact that she was trying to speak to him or that he was scared of what she would say to him. She tugged on her wrist, trying to slow his pace but he was far too strong for her even as she was in transition. She knew that it would have to stop eventually however, he couldn't keep them running forever after all.

As their pace slowed to a stop she let out a sigh of relief. He would finally allow her to talk.

"Nicklaus…" She said in a warning tone. She was not exactly amused with his theatrics. He looked over at her like a tiny boy that was just caught doing something naughty. "You can't do that. You can't just keep trying to delay your problems."

"I don't know what you're talking about…"

"Nick." She pronounced with reprimanding manner. He sighed and turned towards her, preparing for whatever speech she had in store for him. "You thought that I was going to say that I didn't want to complete the transition and so you took me by the wrist and dragged me on a twenty mile sprint."

He sighed and looked down at the ground, knowing that she was right but he always hated to admit it. He glanced up at her from underneath his eyelashes, bashfully searching for signs that he was correct in thinking that he was about to lose his lover once more and this time forever. She looked back at him with the same analytical gaze, trying to get her finger on what he was thinking at the moment.

"Well…do you _want_ to complete the transformation?" He asked in a slightly perturbed tone. His pouty face was splayed across his face. He was already concluding that she was going to choose death over a cursed after-life with him in order to cushion himself in the case that she did end up actually choosing the option of an eternity of rest.

But Tatia had always been an adventurous sort of girl.

"Well, do you _want_ for me to complete transition?"

He nodded at her with a somber look to his features. "Yes."

"Alright, it's settled then isn't it?" She shot back strutting over to him and patting him strongly on the shoulder. A huge childish grin stretched out across his cheeks making all of Tatia's insides burn a warm glow. They both stared up into the other's eyes, happiness never felt before waving through them like shocks of electricity. "It's sort of a paradox if you think about it. I created the vampires and now I'm becoming one myself."

He chuckled and shrugged, leaning down and placing his lips over hers and relishing in the tingles that were invited to his stomach. As his slowly pulled back he paused, hovering over Tatia's mouth. "I love you."

"I love you too." She replied gifting him yet another long emotional kiss.

It was time to say goodbye to the dopple ganger blood line, and goodbye to the original Dopple Ganger.

**I love every person who read this story. It's officially complete! Reviews! Maybe you could even PM me and tell me what you thought of the story as a whole. I'd be happy to discuss my ideas and decisions because there were multiple different ways I was considering to bring this story. Inbox me questions and if I get enough maybe I'll post a final Author Q&A chapter.**


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